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Considering the Options

Sat, April 14, 2:15 to 3:45pm, Westin New York at Times Square, Floor: Ninth Floor, Royale Room

Abstract

Presenter 4 Summary
The final presenter has completed extensive research on the challenges teachers face in managing the day-to-day realities of classroom assessment practices. He also has four decades of experience in the design, development, and presentation of assessment literacy training for teachers and school leaders on how to meet those challenges. Having authored a leading pre-service classroom assessment training manual for teachers and several guides for principals and school leaders outlining their assessment responsibilities, he advises a national task force on the development of assessment literacy for educators, policy makers, parents, and students. In short, he brings an immense amount of on-target experience to the proposed symposium’s issues.
Presenter 4 will rely on this experience to define assessment literacy in terms of what policy makers and parents need to understand and appreciate to be considered assessment literate in their stakeholder context. He will contend that both of these groups must understand the diverse purposes assessments can serve, including those uses that support student learning and those that certify it. In addition, both groups will need to understand and appreciate the basics of what needs to be assessed by way of learning targets, methods available to assess these achievement expectations, keys to effective communication of assessment results to support or certify learning, and the keys to creating a relationship between assessment and student motivation.
Given these foundations of knowledge and values, Presenter 4 will outline the important assessment responsibilities both parents and policy makers must fulfill to ensure student academic well-being. Parents are responsible for protecting the assessment rights of their children by carefully managing the relationship between their offspring and their teacher. Responsibilities for policy makers are more challenging. Assessment policy drives practice. If assessment illiteracy policy makers set unsound policies, then practices suffer and student learning is harmed. This happens regularly. Presenter 4 will share specific examples. He will argue that this cannot be allowed to continue.
How, then, can we provide these key players with the opportunity to understand the basic principles of sound assessment practice? Presenter 4 will identify barriers that have prevented parents and policy makers from becoming assessment literate in the past, suggesting strategies for removal of those roadblocks. He will identify their potential trainers, identify programs currently available to promote their assessment literacy, and suggest where resources can come from to support this crucial school improvement effort.

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