Global Collaboration for Promoting Innovations in Teaching and Learning: Using Evidence From Performance Assessments

• In Event: U.S.-China Innovative Partnership in Elementary Education

Abstract

Objectives or purposes
This commentary will:
➢ Identify links between promoting innovations in teaching and deeper learning and the use of performance assessments to capture evidence of student learning;
➢ Describe tested SCALE design principles for developing rigorous, common core aligned, and curriculum-embedded performance assessments with discipline specific common rubrics;
➢ Share performance assessment exemplars;
➢ Document how rich, authentic performance assessments can be catalyst for significant instructional change with the ultimate goal of enriching student learning;
➢ Determine whether collaborating on the design and implementation of performance assessments is an effective vehicle for improving instructional practice in the United States (U.S.) and China.


Perspectives or theoretical framework
What gets tested gets taught! The literature supports that how you assess student achievement drives the way teachers teach and what students learn (e.g., Black & Wiliam, 1998; Stiggins, 2002). If students are to engage in deeper learning that require sophisticated ways of thinking, reasoning, analyzing, experimenting, applying knowledge, and becoming effective communicators and if we expect teachers to shift instructional focus to guide students to master deeper levels of learning, assessments need to capture evidence of these competencies. Performance assessments designed to measure not only discipline-specific content, but also the college and career readiness skills (Conley, 2007, Darling-Hammond, 2010). Evidence from high-performing schools supports the claim that rigorous performance assessments support students' deep learning, successful completion of high school and success in college (Wasley, et al., 2000; Darling-Hammond, Ancess, & Ort, 2002; Foote, 2005; Barron & Darling-Hammond, 2008; Stevens, et al., 2008).


Method, Techniques, Modes of Inquiry
After presenting lessons learned about designing and implementing performance assessments in U.S., Chinese educators witnessed the implications of using performance assessments to improve classroom instruction. As a result, the partnership will sponsor a design institute where elementary teachers in China and U.S. will collaboratively use the SCALE design principles and development process to construct curriculum embedded performance assessments. Teachers will use protocols for implementing assessments and scoring systems for evaluating student learning consistent with research-based principles of assessment for learning.


Data sources, evidence, or materials
Analysis of the design institute training, sample performance assessments, surveys, interviews, classroom videos, and student work samples from elementary teachers in the U.S. and China.


Results and/or substantiated conclusions or warrants for arguments/point of view
Chinese educators and policy makers watched live lessons of U.S. teachers teaching Chinese students and were struck by the differences in how teachers in the US and China interact with their student. Chinese students engaged with content, demonstrated discipline specific skills and applied knowledge to solve problems. Chinese educators publicly exclaimed interest in learning how to incorporate these teaching strategies and assessment techniques into their classrooms.


Scholarly significance of the study or work
Both countries are looking for innovative ways to promote improvement in teaching practices and increase student achievement and ability to apply knowledge. This common goal has sparked a partnership to provide a window into how two countries with very different contexts will design and incorporate performance assessments into their assessment systems.

Author

• Susan E. Schultz, Stanford University