The Wyoming Body of Evidence System: District Assessment for High School Graduation

• In Event: Performance-Based Assessment: Something Old, Something New

Abstract

Purpose/Objectives
The purpose of this paper is to describe the experiences of a large school district with the Wyoming Body of Evidence program, a legislated assessment program required for every school district in the state.
Perspective(s) or theoretical framework
Wyoming’s graduation requirements include “evidence of proficient performance, at a minimum, on the uniform student content and performance standards for the common core of knowledge and skills." In contrast with many states nationwide that require students to pass a single, state-wide graduation exit exam, Wyoming school districts are required to collect a Body of Evidence (BoE) to determine if a student has met graduation requirements.
Methods, techniques, or modes of inquiry
Wyoming's BoE system intended for the provision of multiple measures to assess student mastery of the content standards; in this way, no single assessment would disqualify a student from graduation. Although each district determines what it will include in its BoE, the evidence is expected to be able to support determinations about student mastery in each of nine core content areas. Individual districts were expected to develop a BoE system that met rigorous standards for content alignment, comparability of evidence over time, consistency of scoring, standard setting, and fairness.
Results
The reality of the challenge of implementing a BoE system in a large district in the state will be described. While most districts in the state developed test score based approaches, this district's approach involved the use of common rubrics and collaborative scoring sessions to increase the reliability and validity of teacher judgments about student proficiency. This approach was consistent with the state assessments, which emphasized a just few important skills in each content area tested. Implementation of the common rubric, teacher judgment approach met with some success in the content area of English/language arts. Evidence from generalizability theory studies will be presented that showed teachers were able to make fairly reliable judgments about student proficiency. Also, evidence from a survey of teacher attitudes about the use of the rubric based approach will be presented. The findings of the survey show both areas of promise and considerable challenges going forward. Efforts are presently underway to extend the approach to math in the coming school year.
Even in this best case example, however, the vision for a BoE system remains largely unrealized. Most districts had inadequate capacity for the task of building a BoE system that lived up to the standards of alignment, consistency, comparability, fairness and standard setting in one, much less in nine, content areas. The hoped for expectation of advocates for the system that classroom assessment in the state would be transformed remains largely unrealized.
Scientific or scholarly significance of the study
Wyoming’s Body of Evidence program has been used with limited success in the state since 2006, and provides a unique example of a balanced assessment system. By highlighting the characteristics and challenges of the program, this paper will help to inform the larger considerations of performance-based assessment within next generation assessment systems.

Author

• Michael J. Flicek, Michael Flicek Projects, LLC