Assessment Literacy Reflection

Tolman High School is in the process of conducting an action research project to determine if the use of common formative assessments will impact student success on summative assessments. We conducted our research with one core content area class in Math and Science. Teams of Geometry and Biology teachers developed common formative assessments. As teams, teachers identified priority standards and established specific learning targets developed the formative assessments for each unit. Each of the common formative assessments were administered to all Geometry and Biology students. During common planning time, we collected data and engaged in collaborative conversations regarding the results. We recorded our observations and developed action steps for teachers to implement before administering the unit assessment. We used results from the first unit assessments as our baseline data and we tracked pass rates for each formative assessment as well as each unit assessment. 

 As we are writing this blog, we are still in the process of administering assessments, collecting data and engaging in data analysis and collaborative conversations. While we do not know if our project will achieve our intended overall goals, we can reflect on our progress and share our observations thus far. The project has fostered collaboration and reflection among our Geometry and Biology teachers. Much of the math and science department’s common planning time has been focused on this project. Conversations during meetings have been positive, productive and insightful. Teachers have been honest and open with respect to sharing their instructional strategies. Prior to this, we rarely had discussions regarding specific instructional strategies teachers used to teach a particular concept. As we discussed the student results of the formative assessments, we not only identified common errors made by the students but shared ideas about how best to present topics and correct those errors. We have a wealth of resources right in our own building and we were not fully making use of them. This project has had a positive impact on our math and science departments. Now we hope the same holds true for our students.

 If you are planning to try a similar project in your school, we have a few suggestions. First, take time to carefully choose the problems on the common formative assessments. We found that some problems we chose did not adequately measure if a student had mastered a concept. Make sure you are using quality problems. Planning is very important. Second, teachers must be at very similar points in the curriculum for this to be successful. If one or two teachers are ahead of the pack and several are behind, it is extremely difficult to collaboratively discuss results, develop action steps and have teachers implement those action steps in a timely manner. This worked well with the teachers that were in sync but basically left out the others. We wanted this to be a collaborative effort but it was not reasonable to expect that all teachers were always moving at the exact same pace. The purpose of this project was to increase student performance and improve instructional strategies. We believe we have improved instructional strategies now we hope that our data will show that we also increased student performance.