The Administrator’s Role in an Effective Assessment System

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• Create and support a Professional Learning Community framework.

• Invest in the teachers you have.• Imbed formative assessment in your

learning communities.• Collect and analyze leadership data.• Deal with resistance.

Create and Support a PLC…

Create an Organizational Structure to Support Collaborative Learning

• Create/protect a schedule for teacher collaboration.• Persist in scheduling collaboration – even in

the face of resistance.• Structure time for teacher reflection about

their learning.• Monitor to ensure the time is used well.

Shirley M. Hord & William A. Sommers, Leading Professional Learning Communities: 2008

Prepare Teachers for Skillful Collaboration

• Ensure that the role of group facilitator becomes the responsibility of everyone and rotates as the skill level of group members increases.

• Provide training and support to develop faculty members to serve as skilled facilitators during team meetings.

Shirley M. Hord & William A. Sommers, Leading Professional Learning Communities, 2008

Implement an Incentive System that Ensures Collaborative Work

• Work with teachers to create and implement an incentive system for learning teams.

• Recognize and reward joint work that results in student gains and accomplishes school goals.

Create and Maintain a Learning Community to Support Teacher & Student Learning

• Build a culture that respects risk taking, encourages collegial exchange, identifies, and resolves conflict, sustains trust, and engages the whole staff as a learning community to improve the learning of all students.

Shirley M. Hord & William A. Sommers, Leading Professional Learning Communities,2008

Participate with Other Administrators in One or More Learning Communities

• Attend learning community meetings organized at the district, regional, state, and/or national level to identify and solve school challenges, as well as to learn together.

Invest in the Teachers You Already Have…

Traditional Professional Development

Historically, professional development has done LITTLE to impact student achievement.– We have not been doing what research shows

makes a difference to student learning.– There’s no significant impact on teacher

practice once the teacher returns to the classroom.

Dylan Wiliam, Content Then Process

Ahead of the Curve, 2007

“But Our Teachers Have Been Trained…”

Activity:

At your table, share examples of professional development that has NOT led to significant changes in classroom practice.

Why Traditional Workshops Don’t Work

• Teachers aren’t involved in the process and aren’t provided the opportunity to tailor their work to their own students in their own schools and classrooms.

• Knowing WHAT to do and being ABLE to do it, are two very different things.

• Teachers aren’t provided the TIME to apply a newly learned skill and don’t have a support system and/or resources to try it when they do find time.

Effective Professional Development

To improve teacher quality through professional development…

• Concentrate on both content and process• Focus on what we want teachers to

change or change about what they do (content)

• Support teachers in making changes (process)

Embed Formative Assessment in Your Learning Communities…

Assess Your Assessment!

At your table, share…

1. What information does your school gather to show how students are progressing?

2. What formative assessments do your teachers use?3. How is the collected data analyzed?

– What is the teacher’s responsibility in data analysis?– What is the student’s responsibility in data analysis?

4. What are the next steps for improvement?– How does the analysis transfer to instruction?– How does the analysis transfer to student goal setting and action?

5 Principles to Establishing & SustainingEffective Assessment Practices

1. Gradualism 2. Flexibility3. Choice4. Accountability5. Support

Dylan Wiliam, Ahead of the Curve, 2007

The “Tough” Issues

• Instructional practices

• Grading practices

• Homework practices

• Intervention programs

The “Tough” Issues

Mix It Up! Activity

Use the manila envelopes on your table to record your questions or comments on the uniformity (or lack of) between classrooms in these four areas: instructional practices, grading, homework, & intervention.

These will be traded between the tables to allow you to respond to one another’s questions or comments.

Why So Little Consistency in Assessment?

1. Educational leaders fail to emphasize consistency in the classroom due to misplaced priorities.

2. Educational leaders make inappropriate decisions about assessment because they have the wrong information.

Douglas ReevesChallenges and Choices, Ahead of the Curve

Choices and Trade-Offs for Leaders

Choice 1: Power Standards or Frantic Coverage?

Choice 2: Practical Utility or Psychometric Perfection?

Choice 3: Primacy of Literacy or Pursuit of Popularity?

Choice 4: Collaboration or the Blob?Choice 5: Evidence or Tradition?

Douglas ReevesChallenges and Choices, Ahead of the Curve

Collect and Analyze Leadership Data…

Data on Purpose

“A purposeful, precise approach to selecting, analyzing, and understanding data can augment a comprehensive assessment framework and produce second-order change. Data on purpose ensures at all levels to inform learning, teaching, and leading.”

Stephen WhiteData on Purpose: Due Diligence to Increase Student Achievement, Ahead of the Curve, 2007 Solution Tree

Purpose of Leadership Data

• Helps determine the quality and consistency of leadership practices.

• Adds insight into which leadership practices are most effective in – Building capacity– Creating culture– Sustaining student achievement

Powerful Acts of Leadership that Can be Evaluated with Data

• Modify time• Modify opportunities• Provide corrective feedback• Replicate successful practices• Make midcourse corrections

Stephen White, Ahead of the Curve

Powerful Acts of Leadership that Can be Evaluated with Data

• Analyze diverse types of data• Collaboratively implement and evaluate

common assessments• Develop & test hypotheses• Tailor training to needs• Commit resources

Triangulate!

Ahead of the CurveChapter 10, pages 215 & 217

Study the 2 charts and discuss what meaningful insights the principal of this school could glean from the additional data.

Selecting Teaching Practices to Monitor & Triangulate with Learning Data

• Which high-yield strategy has been supported by PD at your school?

• Do all participants have a common understanding of how to implement?

• Which strategy has been supported and reinforced by modeling, coaching, mentoring, or peer observations?

• Which strategy lends itself to routine and reliable data collection?

• Is the strategy an appropriate fit for the academic standard being pursued?

Deal With Resistance…

Know What & How to Confront

• Assume good intentions.• Identify specific behaviors essential to the

success of the initiative.• Focus on behavior not attitude. Monitor

behavior.• Confront incongruent behavior with specific

concerns and communicate logical consequences.

• Don’t confront everything – just what’s in your face at the moment.

Prevention

• Build shared knowledge to build commitment.

• Provide specific learning opportunities for staff.

• Set clear SMART goals and celebrate small victories.

Give Recognition and Praise

• Great recognition and praise can immediately transform a workplace.

• And just one person can infuse positive emotions into an entire group.

“Fill Their Buckets”

• “Studies show that organizational• leaders who share positive emotions • have workgroups…

• with a more positive mood, enhanced job satisfaction, greater engagement, and improved group performance.”

•• Tom Rath

and Donald Clifton• How Full Is

Your Bucket?

Touch Their Hearts

Appeal to their fundamental human longings

• To be successful• To belong• To make a difference

Celebrations!

Please share with the other administrators at your table…

• An accomplishment you, your school, or one of your school teams has made

• A positive shift in attitude or effort of one or more staff members

• A positive change you are seeing take place as a result of your school improvement efforts

Change is Good!

A Moving Bus

“The final challenge – and the one that solidifies success – is to build so much momentum that change is unstoppable, that everything reinforces the new behavior, that even the resistors get on board – exactly the momentum that develops in winning streaks.”

Rosabeth Moss Kanter

Contact Information

Gail VarneyTitle I School Improvement CoordinatorWest Virginia Department of Education304-558-7805gavarney@access.k12.wv.us

The Administrator’s Role in an Effective Assessment System

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