This week I am attending the Assessment Training Institute in Portland, Oregon.  Before I write my post based on what I learned yesterday, I want to give a shout out to this conference. It is a privilege to be here with so many brilliant people who care so much about the students they teach.  Hearing Rick Stiggins and Tom Schimmer speak about assessment was inspiring, and I’ve already learned so much from them and the other two presenters I was with yesterday, Jan Chappuis and Nikki Roorda.  I can’t wait to see what I learn today!

An assessment is more than a test.  An assessment is more than a quiz, a project, a read-aloud, a discussion, or a “thumbs-up, thumbs-down” for understanding.  An assessment is the best tool that students have to help them steer their courses as learners.  The key word in my previous statement is students.  As teachers, we can sometimes forget that assessments don’t exist simply to fulfill our needs, whether it be to demonstrate school and teacher excellence, to help with course and curricular planning, or to receive merit-based pay (which are all totally different issues).  At the heart of assessments, all assessments, is the students we serve, which is why assessment needs to be frequent, purposeful, thoughtful, and rich with feedback.  How can students be expected to understand where they are and know where they’re headed if we don’t give them the tools to do so?  To quote Rick Stiggins, assessment can “motivate the reluctant, revive the discouraged, and thereby increase, not simply measure, achievement.”  Appropriate assessment and frequent feedback empowers students!

In her presentation, The Five Keys to Quality Classroom Assessment, Nikki Roorda cited effective feedback and student involvement as two of the primary parts of good assessment.  I couldn’t agree more.  Using assessment to provide feedback to the student is what helps the student move forward in their learning.  Tom Schimmer tells us that the role of education in the US is changing.  We no longer “weed out” the students who “can’t”- schools are expected to make sure all students CAN.  The changing role of schools in society makes it even more important for teachers to use assessment and the information that assessment provides to motivate learners.  Feedback to students helps them to figure out who they are as learners, puts them on course to take responsibility for their learning, and understand how to close gaps in their learning.  Effective feedback can keep a kid from simply giving up.

Jan Chappuis gives teachers 5 characteristics for effective feedback:

1. Directs attention to the intended learning: Effective feedback points out strengths and offering specific information to guide improvement.
2. Occurs during the learning process: What’s the point of feedback at the end of a unit when there is nothing the student can do at that point to correct what they’re doing imperfectly?  Jan told us that practice makes permanent.  Make sure students are practicing the intended learning target.
3. Addresses partial understanding: Elaborate through instruction to provide feedback on poorly understood concepts.  Feedback can only build on something, it isn’t useful if there’s no initial learning or surface information. 
4. Does not do the thinking for the student: For me, this is the most difficult one.  Effective feedback should transfer competence to the student.  We can’t do the work for them.
5. Limits correctives to what the student can act on at a time:  Don’t give too much– feedback can cause students to give up if they’re overwhelmed by all they have to do.  The weakest students are the ones who receive the most correctives, and are most likely to be overwhelmed by them.  Feedback should be constructive and serve to lift a student up to a higher level, not crush their spirit.

The feedback we give students should serve to empower them to do better and help them think about their learning.  The next step after giving the feedback is providing students with the tools to use that feedback to achieve more.  Students need to be given the time to be reflective practitioners.  After students read your feedback they need to DO something with it.  Learning is active, after all.  Based on your feedback and their own thinking about their work, ask your students to identify what they did well on an assessment, and what they still need to work on or improve.  From there, students can set learning goals.

Students, teachers, and parents all need to remember that at the heart of every assessment is the student.  Assessments and the feedback that we give the student can motivate them or make them feel powerless.  The feedback that we give the student can be used productively to help students continue to raise their own standards for themselves, or it can be tucked away  in their lockers never to be seen again.  If we expect all students to graduate and meet the criteria for the new meaning of school, we have to change the way we think about their involvement in the process.  The student is the biggest stakeholder in education, and assessment and feedback are the best ways for them to understand where they are and what they need to do next.

Sources:
Chappuis, Jan. “Offering Effective Feedback.” Lecture, Assessment Training Institute from Pearson, Portland, July 7, 2014.

Schimmer, Tom. “Reaffirming, Reworking, & Rethinking Our Assessment Fundamentals for the 21st Century.” Keynote speech, Assessment Training Institute from Pearson, Portland, July 7, 2014.