Student-Centered Science Assessment Toolkit
Toolkit Overview
This Toolkit is a sustained and supported professional learning experience designed to shift the culture of assessment to one where…
STUDENTS
Experience assessment as an important part of learning that is positive, confidence-building, and empowering
Receive feedback that is accurate, constructive, action- and growth-oriented
Are given opportunities to be responsive to iterative feedback and monitor growth toward goals
TEACHERS
Have access to assessments that are designed to reveal pivotal information about student thinking
Develop functional assessment literacy by leveraging their classroom practices and activities
Use assessment collaboratively and as part of social sense-making practices
Use assessment tasks from a posture of curiosity and growth, rather than judgement and labeling
School and district leaders use assessments as a way to cultivate relationships and to use classroom-generated bodies of evidence as a primary driver of instructional improvement strategies.
Deep assessment literacy and high quality professional learning require a divergence from traditional approaches.
Traditional approaches to NGSS assessment PD and many assessment literacy models:
Are stand-alone sessions
Often focus on abstract or idealized situations and tasks
Ask educators to learn something in one context, and do the heavy lifting of translating that to their own practice
The toolkit PD approach seeks to upend this model by:
Supporting ongoing, embedded learning
Connecting the learning in the toolkit to the work educators are doing in their classrooms, at that time
Focus on the development of functional assessment literacy over terms and theory
The embedded processes and routines in the professional learning modules combined with the NGSS assessment tools and processes in the learning modules lead to the desired outcomes.
PROFESSIONAL LEARNING MODEL
Guiding Beliefs
Equity Principles
Modeled Processes
Adaptable Tools
Take-Action
Flexible Audiences
NGSS TOOLKIT
Module 1: Cultivating Student-Centered Assessment Systems
Module 2: Building a Foundation for Equitable 3D Assessment
Module 3: Anchoring Assessment in Curriculum
Module 4: Tending to Student Work
Module 5: Designing Assessments to Fulfill Our Vision
Module 6: Appraising Student Growth
OUTCOMES
Change the culture of assessment in school systems
Change assessment experiences for students
Change assessment experiences for teachers
Support schools & districts as they build capacity and take ownership of sustained professional learning
Support 3D instructional shifts
Slow down and make building relationships as important as building projects.
— Greg Mortenson