Towards a Better Test: Communicating Assessment

Results to Families and Educators

Tuesday, April 142:00-3:00 p.m. EDT

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Agenda

Welcome

About Achieve

Webinar goals

•Why we developed sample student reports

Cory Curl, Achieve, on sample student assessment report findings

Resources developed

Teresa Ramos, Advance Illinois, on feedback sessions with parents

Q&A

Webinar evaluation

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About Achieve

Achieve is an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit education reform organization committed to ensuring all students graduate from high school “college and career ready” or, in other words, academically prepared for any and all opportunities they choose to pursue.

We provide technical assistance to states on the design, development, adoption, implementation, and communications of their college- and career-ready standards, assessments, curriculum and accountability systems.

Achieve conducts R&D to help advance the work of states as well as the education reform community. Our research focuses on graduation requirements, standards implementation, state accountability models and international expectations. Our work doesn’t stop with reports; we also develop tools, such as rubrics and audits, to help states change policies and practices.

We also have a range of advocacy resources to address common concerns with college and career readiness to help advocates develop, launch and refine their own college- and career-ready communications and outreach.

Insights from Sample Student Assessment Reports

Incorporating a learning and continuous improvement mindset

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Goal: Advance awareness and capacity across states to report student-level assessment results in ways that maximize understanding by families, and use by teachers and school leaders.

Strategy: Informed by suggestions from families, teachers and school leaders, develop innovative sample student-level reports and complementary communication materials.

Process:

– Issued RFI, selecting Tembo, Inc. as partner

– Surveyed families and educators regarding current state reports

– Applied findings to create draft sample score reports

– Engaged parent/family and educator organizations in multiple rounds of feedback and revision

Sample reports and communication materials are intended to serve as guides to begin conversations about effective reporting

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The sample reports are based on a hypothetical “Sample Assessment”

– The data elements that can be reported, and how they can be reported, vary across actual assessments

Context matters – states will prioritize or communicate information differently based on their context

We developed sample reports for 2017, allowing us to explore how to show progress/growth over time

Materials on Achieve website

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All materials open-source available at:

http://www.achieve.org/samplestudentreports

Family reports differentiated by grade and subject

English language arts: Grades 5, 8 and 11

Mathematics: Grades 5, 8 and Algebra II

Educator and school reports

Static

Web view

Communications

Letter to families

Flyer for families

FAQ

Priority Areas to Address

Initial feedback on current reports led to three priorities

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Prevent information overload

Offer more context to student performance, including clear, actionable guidance

Explore how to support families and educators in interpreting and acting on information

Overarching focus is on how to communicate about college and career readiness across grades and subjects

Across feedback sessions, families consistently prioritized the following:

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How is my child performing according to standards/expectations?

How well is my child performing relative to school, district, state?

What can we do now?

How has my child’s performance changed over time?

What can we expect for next year’s assessment?

Three strategies to prevent information overload

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1. Prioritize the information (family report)

Three strategies to prevent information overload (cont)

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1. Prioritize the information (educator report)

Three strategies to prevent information overload (cont)

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2. Ensure text is clear and easy to read

Three strategies to prevent information overload (cont)

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3. Use color in simple graphics

Putting results in context is essential for understanding and use, deciding how involves trade-offs

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1. Put overall score in context – “How well is my child performing relative to standards/expectations?”

Putting results in context is essential for understanding and use, deciding how involves trade-offs (cont)

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2. Put overall score in context – “How well is my child performing relative to the school, district, state?”

3. “How has my child’s performance changed over

time?”

Putting results in context is essential to build understanding and use, deciding how involves trade-offs (cont)

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4. “What can we do now?”

How to support families and educators in interpreting and using the information

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1. Contact information

2. Legends in close proximity

How to support families and educators in interpreting and using the information (cont)

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3. Wraparound materials

Suggestions for language about student college and career readiness

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Additional Suggestions for States

Language matters to families and educators

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Avoid jargon and complex language

Use clear, simple language

Use positive, action-oriented language

Personalize where possible

California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress Student Score Report

Graphics need to be tested to ensure that families and educators can interpret them

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Families like well-organized, simple graphs but will have challenges interpreting graphs with a lot of information

Families may have challenges interpreting graphs without enough information

Test all graphics well!

How families and educators access information also matters

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Families want to be able to access the reports in multiple ways – some prefer to access online and others to have hard copies (and archive!) (also supported by May & Robinson 2007)

Teachers also need to access the family reports to facilitate strong conversations with families about student results

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Resources on sample student assessment reports

http://www.achieve.org/samplestudentreports

State Example on Engaging Families and Educators

State leadership to engage families and educators on student assessment reports

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Up-front engagement is critical to produce effective reports, as are ongoing strategies for continuous improvement.

Partner with schools, districts, or organizations to recruit parents and educators with diverse characteristics and perspectives.

– Achieve partnered with a school, two educator leadership organizations and a parent leadership organization.

It’s essential to think through how feedback sessions are organized to get actionable information.

– Achieve started with an introduction, discussed past experiences, asked questions about sample reports, and discussed ideal reports.

Follow up is also important to continue engagement and buy-in.

– Achieve followed up with a summary of findings.

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Teresa RamosOutreach Director, Advance Illinois

Questions & Answers

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Upcoming webinars:

May 12th from 2-3pm EDT: How We Learn Now: Science Education for the Next Generation

June 2nd from 2-3pm EDT: Topic TBD

Mark your calendars!

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Anne BowlesAssociate Director, Strategic Initiativesabowles@achieve.org or 202-419-1553

Cory CurlSenior Fellow, Assessment and Accountability

ccurl@achieve.org or 202-308-6640

Alissa PeltzmanVice President, State Policy and Implementation Support

apeltzman@achieve.org or 202-271-8558

Contact Us!

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Slides and resources at www.achieve.org/meetings-webinars

We are very interested in receiving your feedback on this webinar:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/3D2TMBF

Thank you!