THOMAS GUSKEY 1

“For assessments to become an integral part of the instructional process, teachers need to change their approach in

three important ways. They must:

1.   use assessments as

sources of information for both students and teachers…

2.   follow assessments

with high-quality corrective instruction…

3.  and give students 2nd chances to demonstrate success.”

THOMAS GUSKEY 2

1. Assessments as Sources of Information

“Classroom assessments that serve as meaningful sources of information DO NOT SURPRISE STUDENTS.”

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“The results of the assessments facilitate learning by providing ESSENTIAL FEEDBACK on students’ learning progress and by helping to identify learning problems.”

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“Assessments should reflect the

concepts and skills the teacher emphasized in class, along with the criteria the teacher provided (ahead of time) for how s/he would judge student performance.”

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Assessments need to be aligned with provincial standards which have been reduced to no more than 12 essential outcomes.

NOTA BENE!

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“If a particular concept or skill is important enough to assess, then it

should be important enough to teach.”

“And if it is not important enough to teach, then

there is little justification for including it in the assessment.”

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Assessments provide teachers with specific guidance in their efforts to improve the quality of their teaching by helping identify what they taught well and what needs work.

8THOMAS GUSKEYWhen, through analysis, a teacher sees that as many as

½ the students in a

class answer a clear question incorrectly or fail to meet a particular criterion or essential outcome, it is not a student learning problem – it is a teaching problem…

If, based on this assessment evidence, a teacher is reaching less than ½ of the students in the class, the teacher’s method of instruction needs to improve.

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2. High Quality Corrective Instruction“If assessments provide vital information for both students and teachers, then it makes sense that

they do not mark the end of learning.”

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Assessments must be followed

by high-quality corrective instruction designed to help students remedy whatever learning errors identified with the assessment.

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“To charge ahead knowing that certain concepts or skills have not been learned well would be

foolish.”

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High-quality corrective instruction is not the same as re-teaching…

1. Present ‘unlearned’ concepts “with instructional alternatives that present those concepts

in new ways and engage students in different and more appropriate learning experiences.”

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High-quality corrective instruction is not the same as re-teaching…

2. Accommodate

differences in students’ learning styles and intelligences.

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High-quality corrective instruction is not the same as re-teaching…

3. Must be done

IN CLASS, under teacher’s direction.

Therefore, there must be extension work for those who ‘got it’ the first time.

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High-quality corrective instruction is not the same as re-teaching…

TEACHERS ALREADY DO THIS when they

tutor individual students.

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3. 2nd Chance to Demonstrate Success

“Assessment cannot be a

one-shot, ‘do-or-die’ experience for students.”

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Only in schools do students face the prospect of one-shot, do-or-die assessments, with no chance to demonstrate what they learned from previous mistakes.

> Surgeons

> Pilots

> Driver’s License Exam

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“Mistakes should not mark the end of learning; rather, they can be the beginning.”

“Those students who do well on a 2nd

chance assessment have also learned

well.”

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It must be an

ONGOING EFFORT to help students learn.

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“If teachers follow assessments with high-quality corrective instruction, then students should have a 2nd chance to

demonstrate

their new level of competence and understanding.”

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“Teachers who use classroom

assessments as part of the

instructional process help ALL of their students do

exactly what

the most successful

students have learned to do for

themselves.”