| AAC | COMMUNIQUE |
| Fall 2006 |
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Edmonton, AB T5N 2R1 Phone: (780) 447-9420 Fax: (780) 447-2531 E-Mail: info@aac.ab.ca Web site: www.aac.ab.ca IMPORTANT DATES November 3-4, 2006
November 2, 2006
2005 - 2006 Executive
Executive Director
Field Services Coordinators
Administrative Assistant AAC Communique is also on-line in the Newsletter Archive at www.aac.ab.ca/news.html
Alberta Teachers' Association |
Reflections on Summer Workshop 2006 The summer development workshop is held annually to provide professional development and learning experiences to enable Assessment Specialists to:
The workshop was held this year in Edmonton at J. Percy Page School, July 31 to August 3. Here are reflections from one of the participants on this professional development experience… “Another Summer Workshop with the Alberta Assessment Consortium has come and gone. The four days are as though a long time friend that you don’t see nearly often enough has come to visit, complete with the sense of renewal, thrill and exhaustion. Though I go home each evening with a weary mind and occasionally frustrated at my own inability to put to paper my ideas, the summer workshop has become just that for me – a familiar friend whose presence I look forward to enjoying. Whether you are a developer, team leader or advisor, the spirit of collaboration pervades the experience. Each person arrives at summer workshop with different experiences and skills, and over the course of the four days, each person contributes their gifts to the process of creating high quality performance assessment tasks and rubrics. By immersing ourselves in this environment, we are able to benefit from the experiences of others, collaborate and focus on negotiating a common understanding of assessment. This year a valuable professional development component was added to the summer workshop menu. The sessions presented will allow us to continue with our vital role as assessment specialists in our jurisdictions and to carry the Summer Workshop experience beyond the four days.” Catherine Coyne, Division III AAC Assessment Specialist in the St. Albert Protestant School District New Members
AAC is pleased to announce that the following jurisdictions are now members of the AAC. Our membership currently stands at 83 educational jurisdictions.
Here is a question recently posed from one of the AAC member jurisdictions? “Our division is having all schools administer the same test which will be used as a baseline for the AISI project. It's called the CAT (Canadian Achievement Test). Do you know anything about it? Is it considered a valid tool? I'd appreciate any input.” Here is our response: The CAT is a publisher-produced test with Canadian norms, but not based on the Alberta programs of study. Depending on what the intent of the AISI project is, the results from this or any publisher test will have a low level of validity if the outcomes of the AISI project are founded on the intent and outcomes of authorized programs of study. The following excerpt adapted from the Grade Level of Achievement Reporting: Teacher and Administrator Handbook (August 2006 Draft, pp. 22-24) addresses the problem with such standardized assessment tests. The literature indicates that norm-referenced grading makes learning highly competitive. Students compete against one another for scarce rewards (high grades) distributed by the teacher. Norms tables are allowed to predetermine the number of students who will be at grade level in the subject. O’Connor (1999, 116) states that even for technical reasons the use of a normative approach to classroom grading is inappropriate. In order to establish a normal distribution, the sample size must be large - at least several hundred, preferably thousands. Most publisher tests are generic, norm-referenced achievement tests. Their primary purpose is to sort and select. They can be reasonably used to identify students whose performances on generic school-related skills are well below what would be expected of most children at that age, but cannot be used to determine what grade level of curriculum a student has demonstrated. Another major shortcoming is the lack of alignment to Alberta curriculum. For example, in most publisher tests, the mathematics subtests assess only a small component of the mandated mathematics curriculum, and do so in a format that is antithetical to the philosophy and intent of the program of studies. One of the guiding principles of Fair Assessment Practices for Education in Canada is that assessments reflect the classroom situation for learning as closely as possible. Since teachers do not “teach” in a multiple-choice format, and students learn best when they are active participants in their learning, then overuse of measures of this nature is inappropriate.
The Alberta Assessment Consortium (AAC) has developed a variety of high quality professional development opportunities for the education community. These are based on research and sound pedagogical practices. A new series focused on assessment fundamentals and 10 special topic workshops are available or under development. *** Refocus: Looking at Assessment for Learning Part One: Understanding Assessment as Instruction There are two other parts to this series including: Begin With the End in Mind and What's Working and What's Next *** Performance Assessment Works! Getting Started with Performance Assessment There are two other parts to this series including:
The AAC provides numerous practical tools and strategies. Here is a rating scale teachers may want to use in the classroom to further engage students in the assessment process in meaningful ways. Here is how this might be presented to students. We are interested in how YOU see your learning and assessment in this class. Your opinions will help improve classroom assessment. The following rating scale will help you reflect on your current classroom reality. Thank you for your honest answers to these items.
In this class… ___________________________________________________
Source: Adapted from Assessment FOR Learning. Chappuis et al (2004), Assessment Training Institute, Portland, Oregon |
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