[Series] Assessment Optimization #2: Connecting Assessment with Instruction
4 Steps to Optimizing Assessment and Boosting Achievement
As state standards become more rigorous and demanding of both teachers and students, K-12 educators and district leaders must be strategic and deliberate in all instructional decisions. In order to keep up with standards and provide young learners with the most effective education, we have to deliver purposeful content using the most research-driven methods, and be mindful of the way in which students learn. One way to make the most of every learning moment, meet standards, and be attentive to every student’s needs is to optimize assessment. By focusing your energy on improving assessment strategies, your district can hone in on a crucial step in the learning process. You can then consider how that moment is working alone and how it is working to support standards and inform further instruction. At McGraw-Hill Education, our assessment experts have put together a comprehensive guide, “4 Steps to Optimizing Assessment and Boosting Student Achievement”, that your district can use to set up your own assessment plan:
To discover all four steps of the Assessment Optimization Process, download our assessment planning guide.
We’ve been breaking down the steps to give you an idea of what to expect in the guide. (Check out Part 1 of the series: Assessment Optimization #1: A Shared Vision.) Today we’re going to break out the second step in the McGraw-Hill Education Assessment Optimization Process. Read on for Step #2 →
Step #2: Connect Assessment with Instruction
After you’ve established a shared vision, it’s time to bring that vision down to the classroom level by connecting assessment with instruction. In order to make this happen, first consider the process of learning in the framework of a dynamic (but familiar) student — teacher interaction. In this interaction, the teacher facilitates and empowers the learning, the student achieves and then demonstrates mastery of that learning, and the teacher adjusts instruction based on further learning needs.
Now, consider how that interaction could be enhanced and sharpened if the educator began by thinking about the end result, or the goal, of instruction. The experts behind the McGraw-Hill Education Assessment Optimization Process recommend such a method in connecting assessment with instruction: start with the skills students need to master by the end of the learning experience, and then work backwards. It’s an excellent way to promote purposeful and goal-oriented instruction in your classroom. It breaks down into three tangible steps:
- Look at your state standards and determine what a student needs to learn, and how those skills can be demonstrated to show mastery.
- Decide what content, pedagogy and technology will be most effective to implement instruction and assessment.
- Use the student data provided by assessments to inform further instruction, working back towards the original standard goals.
Personalized learning can be a powerful tool in making this process efficient and effective. Teachers have been bringing personalized learning to the classroom for decades — but with adaptive technology, personalized learning can be made realistically available to every student in a classroom. Technology-based assessment systems can use personalized learning to fortify that dynamic interaction between student and teacher: by continually gathering student performance data, the assessment system can make a teacher aware of an individual student’s knowledge gaps. The teacher can then adjust instruction based on these reports. The system itself can adapt, too — many personalized learning programs will offer targeted activities and content based on knowledge gaps to ensure mastery. Some systems also offer adaptive assessment, where the test itself will adapt based on student response. To learn more about the specific benefits and drawbacks of such a system, download the 4 Steps to Optimizing Assessment and Boosting Student Achievement planning guide, and look to Step #2.
Connecting instruction and assessment is a crucial step in optimizing assessment. If your district is considering putting together a new assessment plan, or if you’re interested in optimizing assessment, download our guide. You’ll discover the other three steps, and more details about Step #2, including statistics related to assessment reliability, and one school administrator’s story in connecting instruction with assessment. Find the assessment planning guide here:
4 Steps to Optimizing Assessment and Boosting Student Achievement
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