Formative Assessment in Action: Highlighting Best Practices - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Formative Assessment in Action: Highlighting Best Practices Including Students with Disabilities … and Those with Significant Support Needs

Margaret Heritage, FAST SCASS Advisor Sheryl Lazarus, NCEO Ed Roeber, MAC Sandra Warren, ASES SCASS Advisor

Overview of the Presentation

• Who are the students with disabilities … including

those with significant support needs?

• What is formative assessment practice and how

might educators of students with disabilities use it?

• What types of assessments do students with

disabilities participate in?

• How do SEAs help the teachers of the students with

disabilities learn to use formative assessment practice?

2

3

Sheryl Lazarus

WHO ARE THE STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES?

Student Characteristics

4

Percentage of Students with Disabilities by Disability Category

**"Other disabilities (combined)" includes deaf-blindness (less than 0.03%), developmental delay (2.1%), hearing impairments (1.2%), multiple disabilities (2.2%), orthopedic impairments (0.9%), traumatic brain injury (0.4%), and visual impairments (0.4%). (Source: U.S. Department of Education, 2015)

5

Specific learning disabilities, 40.1% Speech or language impairments, 18.2% Other health impairments, 13.2% Autism, 7.6% Intellectual disabilities, 7.3% Emotional disturbance, 6.2% Other disabilities (combined)*, 7.3%

Disability Categories

• Students in each disability category vary

enormously in whether, and to what degree, they have barriers to learning.

• Disability category labels:

➢General descriptors of the barriers students may

face

➢Criteria vary from state to state ➢Generally inform the design of options that

different groups of students may need in order to access and make progress in the general curriculum

6

Disability Categories

. . . but they are not helpful in designing formative assessment strategies that work for all children in a category.

7

• Most students with disabilities are not low

performing students; and on the flip side, many low performing students do not have disabilities.

• Finding strategies to ensure formative

assessment effectively includes all students, including students with disabilities, is not a “recipe” to be applied when a given categorical label pops up, nor one that is only applied to students with disabilities.

More About the Students

8

Every Student Succeeds Act

• Requires that all students, including students with

significant cognitive disabilities have the

• pportunity to learn standard-based grade-level

academic content.

– Students with significant cognitive disabilities

who participate in alternate assessments may learn grade-level content with reduced complexity and breadth and master it in different ways.

9

Every Student Succeeds Act

• IEPs must be aligned to the state academic

content standards for the grade level in which the student is enrolled.

10

High Expectations for All Students

• IDEA and ESSA very clearly promote high expectations

for academic learning and access to the general curriculum for every child, including students with significant cognitive disabilities.

• Students with disabilities are learning academic skills

and gaining understanding to the same content as their classmates.

• Content-area standards-based learning progressions

(progress maps) can guide teacher as they assist students in accessing and achieving academic standards for their grade.

11

Learning Environments

• Effective learning environment and instructional

decisions are made at the individual student level.

• Students with disabilities do best in classrooms

with a culture of learning with respect for differences and encouragement for risk-taking.

• Student placement DOES NOT determine how

formative assessment processes are carried out or used. Formative assessment processes are the same for all students

12

1 3

Margaret Heritage

WHAT IS FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT PRACTICE? HOW MIGHT EDUCATORS USE IT

WITH STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES?

What is Formative Assessment

Formative assessment is a planned, ongoing process used by all students and teachers during learning and teaching to elicit and use evidence

• f student learning to improve student

understanding of intended disciplinary learning

• utcomes, and support students to become self-

directed learners.

FAST SCASS, 2017

14

Primary Goal

To inform ongoing teaching and learning

15

Guiding Questions

• Where am I going?
• Where am I now?
• Where to next?

Close the gap

Sadler, 1989

16

Learning status at start of lesson Lesson Learning Goal GAP Formative Assessment

17

18

Clear learning goals & success criteria

Formative Assessment Practices

1 2 Eliciting and interpreting evidence of learning while it is developing 3 Immediate and near-immediate evidence– based responses Feedback to students 4 5 Student involvement – peer feedback and self-assessment

19

Clear learning goals & success criteria

Considerations for Students with Disabilities

1 Personalize goal and criteria Use visuals Place close to students Consistent reference during learning connecting them to current state of learning

20

Eliciting and interpreting evidence of learning while it is developing

Considerations for Students with Disabilities

2

Multiple ways to show thinking (different representations) Speech to text software or communication boards Setting may need to be one-on-

• ne

21

Immediate and near-immediate evidence– based responses

Considerations for Students with Disabilities

3 Scaffolding (small steps) Allocate extra time to respond to evidence Often one-on-one response

22

Feedback to students

Considerations for Students with Disabilities

4

Immediate and clear Reinforces what student is doing well (relative to goal) Prompts a next step (may be a small step depending on the student) Use visuals Oriented to student self-direction (e.g., goal setting)

23

Student involvement – peer feedback and self-assessment

Considerations for Student with Disabilities

5 Concrete (visuals, manipulatives) Teacher scaffolding (prompting)

24

Tier 1: Standards-based core learning for all students

Tier 2: Targeted intervention Tier 3: Intensive

Tier 2:

• Targeted students
• Needs-based learning
• Additional assessment

Tier 3:

• Individual instruction

(IEP)

• Special education
• Additional assessment

Tier 1: In-process formative assessment ( continues at all levels)

25

FAST SCASS Definition Tiers 1, 2, 3

Additional assessment: Tiers 2 and 3

2 8

Sandra Warren

WHAT DOES FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT

LOOK LIKE IN ACTION WITH STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES?

Help your students navigate their learning.

• Where am I going?
• Where am I now?
• Where to next?

Close the gap

Sadler, 1989

29

By becoming aware of their own metacognition, students are more confident in advocating for themselves.

http://www.educationandcareernews.com/learning-tools/making-meaningful-and-measurable-change-in-special-education

Let’s see it in action!

30

Clear learning goals & success criteria

Formative Assessment Practices

1 2 Eliciting and interpreting evidence of learning while it is developing 3 Immediate and near-immediate evidence– based responses Feedback to students 4 5 Student involvement – peer feedback and self-assessment

31

32

https://www.ccsso.org/sites/default/files/2017- 12/Formative_Assessment_for_Students_with_Disabilities.pdf

3 3

Ed Roeber

HOW DO SEAS HELP TEACHERS OF THE STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES LEARN TO USE FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT PRACTICE?

How SEAs Help Teachers Learn FA

• States that belong to the FAST SCASS CCSSO

project have different ways in which they help teacher learn about and learn to use formative assessment (FA) practice

– Print materials that describe elements of FA – Videos of teachers using FA practices in real settings – Short- or long-term learning communities/teams – Expert presentations – Online courses on components of FA

34

How SEAs Help Teachers Learn FA

• States are in different places with their work on

formative assessment

– Some are relatively new to formative assessment and FAST SCASS (e.g., North Dakota) – Others did quite a bit in the past, but aren’t currently doing as much (e.g., ID or NC) – Some have been at it for a number of years (e.g., AZ, AR, MD, and MI)

35

How SEAs Help Teachers Learn FA – FAST SCASS Example

• The FAST SCASS project has supported the creation
• f a guide to formative assessment – Formative

Assessment Rubrics, Resources, and Observation Protocol (FARROP) (Wylie & Lyon, 2015

• Workshop materials include meeting agendas, PPTs,

videos of teacher practice, and extensive scoring rubrics

• Teachers can use the guide, the videos, and rubrics

to examine and reflect on their use of one or more FA components

36

FARROP Learning Program

• FARROP is solely for teacher use (i.e., not for use by

administrators or others) for

– self-reflection – use with a peer for the purpose of peer observation and feedback (live or video recorded)

• These purposes are consistent with professional

learning recommendations of collaboration, reflection, peer feedback and models of effective practice.

37

FARROP Learning Program

• FARROP comprises ten dimensions of formative

assessment practice, ranging from learning goals and success criteria to questions, tasks and activities to elicit evidence, to a collaborative culture for learning, all of which reflect the FAST SCASS definition

• The ten dimensions provide a level of specificity that

enable teachers to recognize particular aspects of practice and provide targeted feedback

• Each rubric dimension has four levels (beginning,

developing, progressing, and extending) and a “not

• bserved” category.

38

Example FARROP Rubric

39

FARROP Results

• FARROP provides guidance and tools to support

self-reflection, peer observation and feedback and action planning for next steps based on the teacher’s current level of expertise. One teacher from Maryland stated: “Prior to this experience [using the FARROP], I think it had been at least 6 years since I watched another teacher actually teach a lesson. I was quickly reminded what it felt like during my student teaching experiences, and I was constantly learning new strategies, looking at things differently, or simply observing students.”

40

State Informative Resource Materials

• AZ: Helped to create and use two video series on FA
• AR: Created resources for embedded professional

development, professional learning communities, instructional coaching, discipline-focused formative assessment training, and personal growth

• IA: Developed a series of professional learning modules

following the Iowa Professional Development Model

• MI: Developed a number of print resources for its FAME

program

• OR: Created a blended learning program (video courses

and print documents to offer micro-credentials to educators

41

State Delivery of Information on FA

• AZ: Provided one-day learning experiences for local

educators; created a cross-agency support team for LEAs

• AR: Worked to create internal work teams with a

shared messages about topics such as using data formatively

• MI: Provides one-day “launches” to new FA learning

teams

42

State Work with Regional Centers/Agencies

• AR: Several agencies provide support for learning FA

practice

• IA: Supports FA professional learning through its

Iowa’s Area Education Agencies (AEAs) and regional centers

• MI: Coaches are supported by Regional Leads who

facilitate introductory FA sessions and support Coaches throughout each school year

43

State Direct Local Educator Learning

• AZ: Worked directly with 15 volunteer schools to

pilot test the WestEd-created Formative Assessment Insights (FAI), an online professional learning initiative for teachers

• HI: Works directly with local educators on FA
• MI: Annually “launches” new FA teams annually and

supports them with its Leads and work of an external R & D team

44

State Websites on FA

• AZ: Created a website for the print and video

formative assessment resources

• AR: Created the Arkansas Formative Assessment Live

Binder with resources for professional development, professional learning communities, instructional coaching, discipline-focused formative assessment training, and personal growth

• MI: Created both a public FA website for public use

and a secure FA website for its Coaches to use

• OR: Uses its website to disseminate information on

the OFAST set of FA professional learning modules

45

State Incentives for Professional Learning

• AR: Embedded FA in multiple SEA units who work

with local educators so FA is not “just assessment work”

• IA: Developed a series of professional learning

modules and offers different incentives/rewards for LEA use

• MI: Provides continuing education credits for

teachers who participate in initial FA Launch

• OR: Provides micro-credentials for educators who

complete each module in the Oregon Formative Assessment for Students and Teachers program

46

Issues at the State Level

• Most state efforts include teachers who work with

students with disabilities

• However, no state provides specific information or

training for educators who work with students with disabilities, whether general education or special education teachers

• State leadership is key to what gets done, as well as how

long it continues to be offered

• Issues to sustain professional learning at the state level

include

– Limited funding – Voluntary, not mandated, efforts – Dependent on the support of a key state administrator or key staff person

47

Issues at the Local Level

• Educators who work with students with disabilities,

whether general education or special education teachers may believe that FA is not suitable or feasible with their students

• Administrators may share these doubts about the

efficacy of states’ professional learning and thus discourage use of the state-provided resources or the participation of their staff in professional learning

• pportunities
• Might learning teams with general education and

special education teachers be a way to address these issues constructively?

48

Time for conversation!

49