KARCHER STAFF BLOG

2018-2019 Karcher Calendar

Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/KarcherMiddleSchool/

BASD Staff Blog: https://basdstaffnews.blogspot.com/

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Kudos

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Kudos to Briana Varnes and the dance club team for their first performance this week! Nice work!!!
What a great turn out for the 8th grade spagetti dinner fundraiser this past week for Outdoor Education! Kudos to Mike Jones and all the rest of the 8th grade staff for all of your efforts and time to make it a successful night! Thank you to Judy Heinz for also staying and assisting the staff as well... it is truly appreciated! Even the Oelslager girls were excited to help clean the tables! Nice work everyone!
Congrats to Zane Bale as some negotiating took place and he moved from part time to full time status for the district! His time at Karcher will stay the same but he will increase some time at the high school. Congrats Zane!
And welcome again to our music department Jessica Wagner! Jessica is a student teacher with Rod Stoughton throughout term 2! Enjoy your time as it will go fast!!!

February 2018 | Volume 75 | Number 5
Measuring What Matters Pages 14-20

Three Key Questions on Measuring Learning

Jay McTighe

To gauge different types of learning, we need a broader collection of measures, with a greater emphasis on authentic, performance-based projects.

Educators, policy makers, parents, and others interested in improving the way we measure learning in today's schools need to examine three essential questions: 1) What really matters in a contemporary education? 2) How should we assess those things that matter? 3) How might our assessments enhance learning that matters, not just measure it?

What Matters in a Contemporary Education?

Any consideration of educational measurement must begin with the desired outcomes to be measured. In our work on the Understanding by Design® framework, the late Grant Wiggins and I described four key types of educational goals—knowledge, basic skills, conceptual understanding, and long-term transfer goals. All of them are essential to a successful education in the 21st century (Wiggins & McTighe, 2011). While these goals are interrelated, their distinctions are important because each type requires different approaches to both teaching and assessment. Let's look at each in turn.

Knowledge

Knowledge goals specify what students should know—factual information (state capitals, multiplication tables), vocabulary terms, and basic concepts (climate, balance). The attainment of knowledge goals can be best gauged through objective test or quiz items and teacher questioning.

Basic Skills

Skill goals state what students should be able to do. Every subject area contains basic skills (addition, handwriting, drawing, dribbling a basketball) that are essential to building competency and mastery. Teachers can assess student proficiency in a particular skill through direct observation of a performance or by examination of an end product that required use of the skill. Unlike with assessments of knowledge, for which there is usually a single, "correct" answer, skill performances can be best tracked along a continuum of proficiency levels from novice to expert.

Understanding

Understanding goals refer to students' grasp of conceptual "big ideas." Such ideas are inherently abstract. They may be in the form of concepts (patriotism), principles (F=ma), themes (friendship), issues (government regulations), or processes (problem solving). Understanding in this context generally cannot be assessed through multiple-choice or fill-in-the-blank test items. Instead, students need to provide explanations, justify conclusions, and support answers with evidence.

Long-Term Transfer

Long-term transfer goals refer to students' capacity to apply what they've learned to a new situation or different context. Transfer goals are process oriented; they specify what we want students to be able to do with their learning in the long run when confronted by new opportunities and challenges. They tend to be reflected in the anchor standards or framework practices in official academic standards, but they are often transdisciplinary in nature (encompassing complex skills like critical thinking and collabora-tion, or developmental Habits of Mind such as persistence and self-regulation).

Transfer abilities—or qualities inherent in them—are also increasingly valued in the 21st century workplace, in a way that they haven't needed to be in the past (see fig. 1) (National Association of Colleges and Employers, 2016; Darling-Hammond & Adamson, 2013). Indeed, it's not too much to say that the future belongs to those who can apply their learning effectively in new situations.

Transfer abilities can best be measured through authentic, performance-based tasks, with well-developed rubrics for evaluation.

How Should We Assess the Things That Matter?

Assessment is a process by which we make inferences about what students know, understand, and can do. To allow valid inferences to be drawn from the results, an assessment must align with, and provide an appropriate measure of, a given goal. Moreover, because all forms of assessment are susceptible to measurement error, our inferences are more dependable when we consider multiple sources of evidence.

Given that there are different types of learning goals, we need an associated variety of assessment types to gather valid evidence of learning. Think of assessment as analogous to photography. Like the results on a test, a picture can be informative; however, no single photo can provide a complete portrayal of a situation. To continue the analogy, what we need is a photo album of evidence on student learning, not a snapshot—a collection of multiple measures, appropriately aligned to different types of learning outcomes that matter.

This raises a vital question concerning the alignment between assessments and educational goals: Are we currently assessing everything that matters, or only those things that are easiest to test and grade? With respect to large-scale, standardized assessments, the answer is fairly obvious. For example, virtually all current standards in English language arts include listening and speaking skills, which are generally acknowledged as the foundations of literacy. Yet those skills are rarely, if ever, assessed on standardized tests. Similarly, most standardized tests have limited capacity to assess transfer goals, or related complex skills like scientific investigation, historical inquiry, research, argumentation, and creative thinking.

Now for a related question: If some outcomes that matter are slipping through the cracks of standardized testing, are we doing a better job of measuring all valued outcomes through classroom assessments? Studies of classroom assessments raise doubts (Frey & Schmidt, 2010). For one study, a district collected classroom assessments from all K–12 teachers in all subjects during a six-week period (Gibble, 2000). Of the total of 664 assessments collected, 20 percent were identified via a random sample for analysis by a committee of teachers and administrators. Here were two of their findings: 1) The majority of the assessments (75.5 percent) measured the lowest levels of cognition (levels I and II on Bloom's Taxonomy), and 2) assessment items were predominantly (80 percent) in multiple-choice, true-false, matching, or fill-in-the-blank formats.

Although this study is dated, its findings are consistent with patterns that I have observed more recently as "test prep" pressures result in classroom assessments that mimic the formats (generally selected- and brief-constructed-response) of state and national accountability tests (McTighe, 2017). Ask yourself: What would the results be if you replicated this study in your school or district today? Are any of your valued outcomes not being properly assessed?

Given the limitations of large-scale testing and the status of classroom assessments, what changes do we need to make to ensure that we are assessing outcomes that matter? What assessment photos do we need for a composite album of evidence of learning? Traditional types of assessments offer sufficient ways of measuring students' knowledge and basic skills. For example, we can use multiple-choice or fill-in-the-blank test items to gauge students' knowledge of historical or scientific facts. However, to properly assess conceptual understanding, long-term transfer, and other complex skills, we need greater use of authentic, performance-based measures in which students are asked to: 1) apply their learning to a new situation, and 2) explain their thinking, show their reasoning, or justify their conclusion.

Authentic tasks are like the game in athletics. While the players have to possess knowledge (the rules) and specific skills (dribbling), playing the game also involves conceptual understanding (game strategies) and transfer (using skills and strategies to advantage in particular game situations). Assessing what matters must include assessing performance in a "game" in addition to tests of requisite knowledge and skills.

Another dimension of making sure we are assessing things that matter shifts the spotlight from educators to students. A photo album approach to assessment can enable learners to contribute their own personal "photos" as evidence of their accomplishments. They can be invited to propose ways of showing that they are meeting academic standards. Students and parents can be asked to contribute evidence of creativity, persistence, or community contributions accomplished outside of the school day. After all, isn't that what transfer means? Maintaining high standards does not require standardization of all measures.

Involving learners in creating the assessment portfolio builds students' capacity for self-assessment. The ability to honestly appraise one's performance against established criteria and performance standards is a life-long skill and a sign of intellectual maturity.

How Might Assessments Serve Learning?

Which leads us to our third big question: How might assessments become more integral to learning, as opposed to just evaluating it? To say that assessment should serve learning is a nice slogan, but what exactly does it mean? Over the years, Wiggins and I conducted a workshop exercise to explore this question. We asked participants to think of a highly effective learning experience and then identify ways in which the associated assessments contributed to that learning. The responses to the exercise have always been remarkably similar across groups and provide a veritable blueprint to guide teachers' classroom assessment practices. Figure 2 offers a representative list of assessment characteristics that we found contribute to deep and effective learning (McTighe, 2013).

This list explains why I am an advocate for expanding the use of authentic tasks and projects in schools. Such assessments offer more than just another way to measure student achievement. Like the game in sports or the play in theater, authentic performances are motivating to learners. They give relevance and purpose to learning, and they underscore the need for practice.

Authentic tasks also influence teaching. Coaches recognize that their job is not to simply "cover" the playbook play-by-play and teach individual skills. They understand that knowledge and skills are in service of larger ends, and that their role is to prepare players for authentic transfer performance in the game. Performance-oriented teachers in all subjects understand this role as well.

Measuring What We Value

How we answer the three questions posed in this article has significant consequences for educational measurement, instructional practices, and ultimately, student learning. The outcomes we choose to measure, as well as the methods of assessment we use, signal to students, parents, and others what matters. If we claim to value critical thinking, creative problem solving, oral communication, and the ability to work effectively in groups, then we need to teach and assess those outcomes. Otherwise, students will quickly get the message that these goals don't really count. If our assessments consist primarily of "single-correct answer" items, we validate rote learning and formulaic responses.

While there is still a place for traditional measures of knowledge and skills in an assessment photo album, greater attention must be given to gathering evidence of authentic student work through performance tasks and projects. By collecting authentic student work samples in digital portfolios, students can compile a literal "album" of growth and evidence of genuine achievements over their school career. As Wiggins (1998) opined many years ago, "Students should graduate with a resume of accomplishments, not just a transcript of 'seat time' and a GPA." It's time to act on this idea.

Of course, form follows function. The integration of multiple assessment measures, including expanded use of authentic, performance-based assessments, requires major shifts in school structures, including in grading practices and scheduling. Teachers will need time to collaborate on assessment task design, within and across subject areas (especially because many authentic tasks can be naturally interdisciplinary). To make the most of performance-based assessments, teachers will also need built-in opportunities to meet in professional learning communities to examine the student work resulting from those tasks (McTighe, 2008). These activities cannot be properly accomplished during a 30-minute team planning block or during an after-school meeting.

But we know the importance of identifying learning goals that matter, of determining ways to assess all of our valued outcomes, and of designing assessments in ways that can be integrated with learning. What's needed in most schools is the will and a systematic plan to do so.

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Information/Reminders

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Ready Sub Information (this was the email shared with staff from the DO)

This is just a reminder that if you find yourself unable to come to work in the morning after 6:30, please do not post the absence in Ready Sub. Please call Deb Roanhaus at the district office. She will then work to secure a sub for that day. This is the best way for us to ensure we will have someone in the classroom. Subs know this is our process and wait to hear from Deb on these late postings.

The number to call the district office is 262-763-0210.

Referendum Information:

PRA Architects is the firm the district is using for the projects. There will be two "User Group" meetings in regard to the construction of the new middle school. The first meeting will be the project manager and designer from PRA coming to meet with department or grade level teams on December 11 and December 12. Each group will meet with them once over the two day span for 45-50 minutes.

I am working on a schedule and will get that information out to everyone the week after Thanksgiving.
During this meeting time what is important to remember is the difference between need and want when discussing. Their lens is focusing on curriculum and instructional needs not on individual staff needs as this building will be used for 50+ years... so be mindful of that when discussing with them.

The next User Group meeting will then be in late January or early February where groups will see more of an actual design/layout of the building.
Should be a fun process!

November 19 and 20:

Monday/Tuesday - Extended Advisory (no iTime)

Just a reminder... on Tuesday students will be able to have their free ice cream during lunch for those that participated in the Aramark Survey on November 12.

Monday, November 19 - District K-5 Literacy Committee Meeting
Tuesday, November 20 - KCB Turkey Hunting in the Gym!

Students will be able to go to the gym over the lunch period and use KCBs to "hunt" for a turkey! Student Council did a GREAT job working on making the costumes and it will be a fun activity for our students!!!

November 26 - 30:

Throughout the whole week... PE and ALL adjustments

Hans Block and Jon Nelson are wanting to try something different with their health unit and have all students A, B, & C at the same time throughout the week. They will be using the Auditorium and 21st Century lab spaces throughout the week. Therefore... A, B, C students will not be in ALL that week. There will still be students in ALL as we have our resource and study support students still in the ALL setting... those in ALL will just see less students that week.
If you have questions please ask Hans Block or Jon Nelson!

Monday, November 26 - District MTSS Committee Meeting from 3:45 - 5:15 in the Karcher library.
Tuesday, November 27 - Special Education Department Meeting from 2:40 - 3:15 in the small conference room.
Wednesday, November 28 - Jon Nelson admin for the day.

The district admin team will be attending a conference together, focusing on our Big Three.
Therefore, Jon Nelson will be covering any disciplinary needs within the building and Amanda Thate will also be available to help Jon if needed. As in the past, any time we are out of the building we make arrangements to have other administrators (ex: high school or district office) assist or we pull teaching staff from the building, such as Jon Nelson.
Thank you Jon and Amanda for assisting!

Wednesday, November 28 - This PLC is a TWT (teacher work time) PLC!
Thursday, November 29 - Orchestra field trip to Chicago Symphony from 8:00 to about 1:30.