Presentation from the April 2012 Independent Curriculum Group conference, "New Directions in Assessment." A quick overview of new assessments and some novel ways to use conventional assessments, based on work by Doug Lyons and Andrew Niblock.

1. Heads Up!
The Other Kind of Assessment,
and Why It Matters
Peter Gow
(with enormous thanks to Doug Lyons, CAIS-
CT, and Andrew Niblock, Hamden Hall CDS)
ICG: New Directions in Assessment
April 21, 2012

2. 2
Your Factoid of the Day
 Beginning with the current cycle,
independent school accreditation in every
region will require evidence of data-
informed decision making in the area of
academic program
 Several regions (ISASW, Canada) require
school-wide (or regular and broad-based)
data-gathering on academic performance as
a part of their accreditation process
ICG April 2012 Other Assessments--Gow

3. 3
The Holy Grail
In an ideal world we would have easy access
to
 assessments that measure things that our
schools claim to value
 assessments that have credibility within our
wider communities as well as within our walls
 assessments that generate data that is easy
both to comprehend and to translate into
better instruction and programming
 assessments that are easy to administer
ICG April 2012 Other Assessments--Gow

4. 4
Some Pre-Suppositions
The new accreditation requirements are
based on some not-necessarily correct
assumptions:
2.That schools are familiar with appropriate
assessment tools that will provide useful
data
3.That schools have the expertise to make the
most skillful and informed use of data
4.That tools of the sort we need already exist
ICG April 2012 Other Assessments--Gow

5. 5
ICG April 2012 Other Assessments--Gow

6. 6
New kinds of assessments focused on
“21st-century learning capacities”
Performance-task-based:
 CWRA: College and Work Readiness
Assessment (ICG folks know all about this)
 C-PAS: College-readiness Performance
Assessment System (from the Educational
Policy Improvement Center—David Conley)
 CBAL: Cognitively Based Assessment of, for,
and as Learning (from Educational Testing
Service)
 iSkills: Information and Communication
Technology skills assessment (from ETS)
ICG April 2012 Other Assessments--Gow

7. 7
New kinds of assessments focused on
“21st-century learning capacities”
Attitudinal/motivational/”habits of
mind”-based:
 HSSSE: The High School Survey of
Student Engagement (moribund for
the moment, alas)
 CSEQ: College Student Experiences
Questionnaire
 ISHC: Independent School Health
Check
ICG April 2012 Other Assessments--Gow

8. 8
New Ways of Engaging with
“International” Assessments
 The CAIS TIMSS (Trends in International
Mathematics and Science Study) question
database—create and score your own “TIMMS”
assessment
 The school-based PISA (Programme for
International Student Assessment, from the
Organisation for Economic Cooperation and
Development)
 Search “released items” for real test questions
for a host of large-scale assessments (NAEP ,
state)
ICG April 2012 Other Assessments--Gow

9. 9
Squeezing More Data from Commonly
Available Assessments
 Use the EXPLORE-PLAN-ACT sequence
 USE that ERB data
 Get the fine points from PSAT SOAS (Summary of
Answers and Skills) reports
 Consider the “School-Day SAT With Enhanced
Scoring”—student and item-level data, skill reports
ICG April 2012 Other Assessments--Gow

10. For a whole lot more
information, see Lyons &
Niblock, “Measuring What We
Value” (NAISAC12):
http://www.caisct.org/RelId/630134/IS
vars/default/NAIS_PRESENTATION.htm