[STATE-LEVEL] ASSESSMENT SHOULD NOT DRIVE INSTRUCTION

Regional Science Coordinators are developing an online orientation class for the new Washington Comprehensive Assessment of Science (WCAS). We have involved OSPI’s Science Assessment lead, Dawn Cope and OSPI’s Director of K-12 Science, Ellen Ebert, in the process as well as Lois Sherwood from WSTA. In our first planning meeting, I wanted to hear the most important message from each person at the [virtual] table. Dawn Cope of the assessment department was the first to speak up and quite pointedly said, “assessment does not drive instruction.” That pretty much spoke for the rest of us.

What does that mean for teachers in Washington State where we’ve spend the last 13 years writing “powerful classroom assessments” that mirrored the content and format of the WASL and the MSP?

1. Assessment systems serve specific purposes.They are developed to provide specific kinds of data for those purposes. And an assessment developed at the state level to inform state-wide decisions does not likely provide the kind of data a teacher needs to know about her students in order to effect instruction or learning. Rather than worrying about the format of the assessment item, teachers should start with the question, “what do I need to know about what my students understand and what they can do?”
2. Classroom assessment will not likely look like the WCAS.Rather than constructing classroom assessments that look like state tests and include fabricated “scenarios” that students have never engaged in, teachers should instead be assessing students formatively using 3-dimensions to help plan for instruction and learning that empowers students to explain identified phenomena or solve identified problems. Rather than using “formative assessment probes”, teachers should consider what they can glean from their student’s real responses to the work of solving problems and explaining phenomena.
3. WCAS “Bundles” are not intended to be instructionally rich or sound.Let’s say my teacher presents me with a phenomenon of a local salmon creek that no longer supports salmon. I will learn about the Life Science to talk about many plants and animals within that system of the stream. I will learn about Physical Science to talk about the direction and intensity of light, the solubility and quality of the water, and the temperatures in the creek. I will also learn about Earth and Space Science to talk about the materials that make up the stream and may influence its direction, its water quality, or its speed. In that example, I could easily touch on 9 different PE’s as I refine my explanation of the phenomenon. But on the WCAS scenario (called a “cluster”), only two PE’s are included; and they will be selected to ensure that all dimensions of the NGSS are assessed according to a timeline.