Professional Development Group

Aligning Curriculum Standards, Instructional Practices and

Assessment.

Alaska School Leadership Institute

May 2009

Professional Development Group

Professional Development Group

Professional Development Group

A Model of Alignment

DATA

DATADATA

Professional Development Group

How is performance towards standards demonstrated at the classroom level?

Professional Development Group

Curriculum Alignment Check

• Do we understand how our curriculum is aligned to the Alaska Standards and GLE’s?

• Do we have a good understanding of what our students are expected to know and be able to do within the content standards and GLE’s?

• Do we use unpacked standards and learning targets to plan lessons and assessments?

Professional Development Group

If Curriculum is defined as…

…desired “performances of understanding.”Then the next step is to…

Unpack the Standards

Identify the underlying concepts and skillsneeded for students to demonstrate proficiency

at each grade level.

Professional Development Group

Why Unpack the Standards?

Fosters a process for collegial dialogueEliminates redundancy and focuses instructionPromotes consistency Provides equityPromotes continuity between grade levels and

between schoolsIncreases student learning for ALL

Professional Development Group

The Dichotomy of an Unpacked Standard

GLE

Standard

Skill Concept SkillConcept

Learning TargetsI Can… Statements

Professional Development Group

What are Learning Targets?

A Learning Target is any achievement expectation we have for students on the path toward meeting a standard.

It specifically states what we want the students to learn and be able to do.

Learning Targets should be formatively assessed to monitor progress toward meeting a standard.

Professional Development Group

Standards and Targets

To fully utilize the Standards and Grade Level Expectations, educators must be able to answer the following questions:

What specific content and skills are embedded within the standards and GLE’s?

How are learning targets used by teachers and shared students?

Professional Development Group

Instruction

How do we make sure that our instructional strategies are meeting the varied needs of all our students?

Professional Development Group

Assessment as Instructional Feedback

From…

Teach Test Grade & Move On

To…

Assess Teach Assess Adjust Instruction Assess

Professional Development Group

Assessment in Support of Learning

• go beyond merely providing judgments about student performance to providing rich descriptions of student performance,

• evolve from being isolated events to becoming events that happen in ongoing series to reveal patterns,

• go beyond merely informing instructional decisions of teachers to informing decisions also made by students.

Rick Stiggins, 2006

Professional Development Group

Assessment

In what ways do the assessments we use inform our instructional practices and monitor student progress at the building, classroom and individual student levels?

Professional Development Group

How do you know what they know?

What data do you collect to:

verify student understanding?monitor progress? inform instruction, curriculum or program needs?

Professional Development Group

Professional Development Group

Using Data to Identify Learning Gaps

Formative assessment can identify specific students’ learning gaps at a time when the learning is still taking place and timely interventions can be made.

Professional Development Group

Analyzing your Classroom AssessmentsFundamental Questions

What standard(s) are you assessing?

What kind of evidence are you gathering?

What levels of performance do you expect?

How will the assessment be used?

Professional Development Group

Professional Development Group

Assessment and evaluation are no longer the product of teaching, they are the tools that learners and teachers use to support learning.

Professional Development Group

Assessment can help us move towards…

Learning …instead of just teaching

Quality …instead of quantity

Improvement …instead of one-shot deals

Depth …instead of coverage

Confidence …instead of anxiety