Identifying District Levers for Improvement and Sustained Implementation of Performance Assessments Through a Research-Practice Partnership

• In Event: Cultivating a Collaborative: Emphasizing Stakeholder Trust to Develop and Research High-Quality Performance Assessments in California

Abstract

Purpose, Perspectives, & Significance

This presentation will contextualize the role of district partnership as vital to supporting the statewide performance assessment collaborative in California. The panelist currently manages the implementation of performance assessments in one of the key partner districts in the collaborative. He works with teachers and site-level administrators, as well as technical assistance providers, district administrators, and researchers, to improve the consistency and quality of the district’s graduate capstone requirement. The presenter will highlight how his former experience as a teacher and his current role in the central office provides him with a deep understanding of how well-constructed professional development opportunities can generate practitioner buy-in for innovative assessment practices. He will speak to how the collaborative supported this work by emphasizing the role of systems, student outcome data, reflection, and equity in the collaborative as a whole and in its partnership with him and his district. He will also share how resources from the collaborative and data from the research–practice partnership supported him in revising the district graduate profile and planning professional development sessions.

The presentation will build on research highlighting the value of adaptation by design in supporting the spread of curricular tools. Additionally, the presenter will add to the research on what district leaders find useful in decision-making. He will also share how district central office staff can work with researchers to develop a mutually beneficial research agenda, facilitate data collection, and serve as an advocate for practitioners’ equal standing within a research-practitioner partnership. Finally, the presenter will highlight the importance of creating a culture of collaboration, so that teachers can learn together, share resources, and calibrate for quality. These features of effective professional learning are well-documented in the research.

The presentation will address the following questions central to research-practice partnerships in a whole-district context: How can a district office balance flexibility and structure in the design and implementation of a district initiative? How do researchers and technical assistance providers support meaningful improvement in student learning and what are the limitations of these partnerships? How can performance assessments increase educational rigor through well-constructed professional development opportunities?

Methods, Data Sources, & Results

The panelist will share his method to producing practitioner-responsive professional development, which garnered increasing buy-in for the district’s performance assessment system and opt-in professional learning supports. According to research, openness to improvement, trust, and respect are key features of a collaborative learning community, which provided the grounding for this work. As such, this presenter used a combination of self-reported survey data, student outcome data, and researchers’ observational data to inform the design of professional learning opportunities.

Author

• Young Whan Choi, Oakland Unified School District