Assessing Assessment

Blog #10:  What methods are used to evaluate teaching and learning? 
Why is evidence-based librarianship important? 
Describe an "aha" moment you had this week, if any. 
Kathi Rickert, St. Kate's Library, will talk this week about the design and preliminary results of a pilot study of a new IL initiative that embeds librarians in undergraduate core courses. What questions do you have for her about the assessment process?

This week, we read about the R stage of Booth's USER method.  R stands for reflect: evaluate aspects of learner and instructor experience; revise: determine what you would do differently the next time; and reuse: instructional materials in other situations.  Booth outlines James McMillan's assessment strategies:  selected response (polls, multiple choice tests), constructed response (short answer essay), teacher observation, and student self assessment.  She also discusses the feedback loop, which, she says, comprises the following stages:
a.  Pre-assessment: to establish prior knowledge;
b.  Formative assessment: to evaluate in-process;
c.  Summative assessment: to judge overall effectiveness; and
d.  Confirmative: to track retention well after the interaction.

Although I believe it is an essential part of the learning process, dealing well with the assessment of student work is the single most difficult part of teaching for me.  One blocking force is certainly time.  I have developed methods that help me assess more efficiently (rubrics, checklists, etc.), but especially as a writing teacher, I frequently feel overwhelmed by the amount of feedback I feel I should be giving students vs. the hours I have in the day.  I know this is directly related to both class size and the competing demands on my own time.  I have learned, over the years, that I don't have to give feedback on everything, that peer and self evaluations are beneficial, that grading portfolios of selected best work can save time and be just as effective.  However, I also remember days of small classes when I could actually have a writing conference with each student and how beneficial that was.

Another blocking force, I admit, is my general cynicism surrounding assessment.  I'm not talking about authentic assessment developed by teachers who know their students and curriculum best; I'm referring to our test-happy current educational environment where students are subjected to all sorts of summative and confirmative tests written by Pearson and other companies that are profiting big time on our buying into the belief that we must have quantifiable data to know if we are effective.  These test results are published in the newspaper, and teacher shaming ensues, even from those very people who are supposed to support us.  See the recent example from the Minneapolis schools' superintendent: http://www.startribune.com/topics/people/bernadeia-johnson.html

And it isn't just Pearson et al.  We have five high schools in our district.  The district office has decided that all schools must use the same end of the course summative assessments.  So, a committee of teachers and "TALS" (Teaching and Learning Specialists) develop assessments for each class.  Teachers need to administer the assessments on the same day, grade them according to the district rubric, then report the scores to the district office.  This is a time consuming process, which might be worth it if:  a) the tests were actually good, and b) the result data was transformed into something useful. Neither of these, for a variety of reasons, is true.  For me, it boils down to the lack of trust surrounding teachers.  It is interesting to me, now working in a college environment, that post-secondary teachers (many of whom have no background in assessment design) are free to assess however they wish.

Finally, there is the pushback that inevitably happens with assessment.  Students complaining about their grades, and worse, parents complaining about their grades.  And with an administration that typically tries to make parents happy, I am now to the point where I seriously stop and wonder if it is worth it to give a "bad" grade--which in some cases is an A-.  I know I'm ranting, sorry.  I'm just trying to come to terms with my feelings toward assessment.   As a librarian, I know I will still deal with assessment, but in a different way.  Many of these issues will be resolved.  But in the meantime, I try to not let the system flatten me. I do lots of student self-assessment.  I give verbal feedback often.  I develop my own tests in addition to the district ones that actually measure what students should have and did learn.