Assessments

The Amplify Science Assessment System: Credible, Actionable, Timely

The Assessment System for each Amplify Science Elementary unit is designed to provide teachers with actionable and diagnostic information about students’ progress toward the three-dimensional learning goals for the unit, the grade, and the grade band. Assessments are grounded in the unit’s Progress Build, which describes the way students’ understanding of the unit content should develop and deepen through engagement with the unit’s learning experiences.  The Assessment System includes formal and informal opportunities for students to demonstrate understanding and for teachers to gather information throughout the unit. Built largely around instructionally embedded performances, these opportunities encompass a range of modalities that, as a system, attend to the three-dimensional nature of science learning specified in the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and the National Research Council’s Framework for K–12 Science Education (2012). See the 3-D Assessment Objectives (under Printable Resources) for a summary of how summative and formative assessments across the unit, grade and grade band reveal student knowledge and use of the three dimensions to support progress toward the NGSS Performance Expectations.

Each assessment was developed for a particular purpose.  Entry-Level and Summative Assessments, includes assessments that can be used to measure growth, including entry-level assessments that reveal students’ thinking at the beginning of the unit, and assessments that indicate students’ level of understanding at the end of the unit, which can show the progress students have made and that can be used summatively. There are also On-the-Fly Assessments and Critical Juncture Assessments, which are assessments that can be used to monitor students’ progress—formative assessments that provide teachers with actionable information and instructional suggestions for supporting students’ learning and keeping all students on track—and assessments that help students monitor their own progress. 

Amplify works the curriculum through a Progress Build.  The students learn more and more as the unit progresses, building on what they have learned from chapter to chapter.  Teachers should use the formative assessments to see how students are learning these concepts as the unit continues and builds.  

There will be times when YOU, as the teacher, need them to do something other than what Amplify suggests for a formative or summative Assessment.  That is OK!  YOU are the expert!  YOU have the experience!  Pull from your colleagues, what you've cultivated over the years, and what you think would be a great final assessment for your students for a unit if Amplify's Assessment piece is not enough.  Below are some examples of other final Assessments other teachers have done for units.  If you have one to share, please email it to me and share!