Assessment of Learning: Standards, assessment maps and progression points

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Assessment of Learning Standards, assessment
maps and progression points

• Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority

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Focus for this session

• Assessment of student learning
• Using the standards in an assessment process
• Using resources to help make on-balance judgments

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Assessment key issues

• Why assess?
• Characteristics of effective assessment
• What evidence do we gather?
• How do we assess student learning?
• Making on-balance judgments of student achievement

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Why assess student achievement?

• To improve student performance
• (Assessment as and for learning)
• To provide useful information to report to
  parents on student achievement
• (Assessment of learning)

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Characteristics of effective assessment

• Based on how students learn
• Integral to program design
• Clear purpose, goals, standards and criteria
• A variety of measures

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Characteristics of effective assessment

• Valid, reliable and consistent methods
• Attention to outcomes and processes
• Ongoing is best
• Feedback and reflection

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Collection of on-going assessment
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Standards

• Describe what students should know and be able to
  do
• Set for six levels from Prep to Year 10
• Signposts at widely spaced points along an
  underlying continuum
• Basis for curriculum planning
• Basis for assessment and reporting

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Planning and gathering evidence

• Identify focus domains, levels and specific
  elements of standards
• Refer to standards above and below
• Select assessment activities appropriate to
  demonstrate learning
• Develop assessment criteria and/or rubrics drawn
  from standards

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Collection of on-going assessment
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Assessing more than one domain

• Multi-domain units of work
• One teacher might teach and assess all aspects of
  a students learning
• Two or more teachers might teach and assess
  different aspects of a students learning

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Students with additional learning needs

• Modify tasks
• Allow students to demonstrate learning in
  different ways
• Refer to individual learning plans
• Refer to Students With Disabilities Guidelines
  and English as a Second Language Companion

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Using evidence to make judgments

• Collect a variety of evidence
• Base judgment on evidence overall
• Work through school processes
• Use standards, assessment maps and progression
  points

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Assessment maps - purpose

• Assist teachers to
• Develop common understanding of standards
• Assess student work consistently
• Answer the questions
• What does work at this standard look like?
• What are typical features of work of students
  progressing towards the standard?

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Assessment maps - features

• Developed for each domain
• Work samples illustrate achievement of elements
  of the standard/s
• Work samples progressing towards a standard at
  three points

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Work samples

• Address specific elements of standard/s
• Describe context for assessment task
• One or more samples illustrate typical features
  of student work
• Annotations identify attributes of the work
  linked to elements of standard/s

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Progression points

• Schools required to report to parents using A to
  E
• Standards at six levels
• Finer scale developed to support reporting
• Three points between each standard to show
  progress towards the standard
• Three points to show progress beyond Level 6

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Progression point examples

• Assist common interpretation of progression
  points when reporting
• Illustrate typical development of some concepts
  and skills in the standards
• Some concepts and skills developed across more
  than one level
• Content references are examples not
  prescriptive

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Level 5 Standard Thinking Processes
Reasoning, processing and inquiry

• At Level 5, students use a range of question
  types, and locate and select relevant information
  from varied sources when undertaking
  investigations. When identifying and synthesising
  relevant information, they use a range of
  appropriate strategies of reasoning and analysis
  to evaluate evidence and consider their own and
  others points of view. They use a range of
  discipline-based methodologies. They complete
  activities focusing on problem solving and
  decision making which involve an increasing
  number of variables and solutions.

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Standards and progression points
In Thinking Processes, the work of a student
progressing towards the standard at Level 5
demonstrates, for example

• At 4.75
• use of self-generated selection criteria to
  locate and critically assess information from
  varied sources for investigative purposes

• At 4.25
• with teacher direction and using a range of
  strategies and self-formulated questions,
  identification of information that would be
  appropriate for an investigation, analysis or
  report

• At 4.5
• identification and synthesis of relevant
  information from given sources, using appropriate
  strategies to evaluate evidence for example,
  identifying subjective or misleading information

Level 5 Students use a range of question types,
and locate and select relevant information from
varied sources when undertaking investigations.
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Collection of on-going assessment
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Making an on-balance judgment

• Evidence based rather than where the student
  should be
• Assessment is holistic and on-balance
• Take account of differing nature and complexity
  of each assessment task
• Key question which standard or progression point
  does this collection of evidence best match?
• Assessment maps and progression points are a
  further reference

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Reviewing the evidence

• Review a range of evidence
• Evaluate what the evidence as a whole
  demonstrates about the students learning
• Qualities may reflect statements or examples in
  more than one standard or progression point
• Use moderation processes, assessment maps,
  progression point examples to refine judgment
• Determine which standard or progression point,
  on-balance, the identified qualities best match

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Online resources

• VCAA
• http//vels.vcaa.vic.edu.au/assessment/index.html
  
• Standards and progression points, Assessment
  maps, Assessment principles, Assessment tasks,
  Assessment resource

• Department of Education
• http//www.sofweb.vic.edu.au/blueprint/fs1/assess
  ment.htm
• Assessment advice, Assessment professional
  learning modules, Multi-domain assessment tasks,
  Reporting advice