1) Three key things that research tells us about learning are that no significant learning occurs without relationships, professional development is powerful, and standards are powerful. 2) If student achievement is to improve, schools must change the learning experience for adults through professional development, the classroom experience for students through instructional focus, and the feedback given to students through assessment focus. 3) Studies show that innovations which include strengthening formative assessment produce significant learning gains.

1. Raymond School DistrictTeaching and Learning How Do We Know What They Know?

3. No significant learning occurs without significant relationships

4. Professional development is powerful

5. Standards are powerful

6. Teaching to standards

7. Assessing to Standards2 Raymond School District

9. The feedback we give students- Assessment Focus3 Raymond School District

10. Instructional Focus In schools showing marked improvement in low-performing student achievement, providing constructivist learning opportunities was the onlymitigating factor. Duane Baker, 2003 4 Raymond School District

12. Explicit teaching of standards

13. Transparent reporting of standards-based achievement

14. System designed to measure student growth, not sort5 Raymond School District

15. Why clear standards? 6 Raymond School District

16. Who’s clear about the goal? 7 Raymond School District

17. Assessment “All of these studies show that innovations which include strengthening the practice of formative assessment produce significant, and often substantial, learning gains.”—Paul Black and Dylan Wiliam 8 Raymond School District

19. Development of assessment tasks

20. Data analysis training

21. Coordinated assessment (classroom, school, state)9 Raymond School District

22. Standards and Grades 10 Raymond School District

23. Standards and Grades What does a grade represent? 11 Raymond School District

24. Standards and Grades Why do we grade? 12 Raymond School District

25. What’s in a grade? 13 Raymond School District

26. What’s in a grade? 14 Raymond School District

27. What’s in a grade? 15 Raymond School District

28. What’s in a grade? 16 Raymond School District

30. Guidance of students

31. Instructional planning

32. Motivation

33. Administrative purposes (rank, credits, GPA)17 Raymond School District

34. What’s in a grade? 18 Raymond School District

35. What’s in a grade? 19 Raymond School District

36. What’s in a grade? 20 Raymond School District

38. Six marks >=90%, two in high 80s, none lower than 62.5%

39. Grade awarded was 68.1%

40. Without a “0”, the grade would be 81.6%21 Raymond School District

41. Did you ever feel like this? “A grade is an inadequate report of an inaccurate judgment by a biased and variable judge of the extent to which a student has attained an undefined level of mastery of an unknown proportion of an indefinite amount of material.”—Paul Dressel 22 Raymond School District

42. Packing a Parachute 23 Raymond School District

43. Discussion questions for the parachute packing case Which student will you choose to pick your parachute? Why? If these were scores in a typical teacher’s grade book, which students would pass? Which students would fail? Is there any discrepancy between your answers to questions 1 and 2? If so, why does this discrepancy occur? What are the implications of this for the way you calculate student grades? 24 Raymond School District

44. Does it matter in Raymond? 25 Raymond School District

46. Grading is complicated

47. Grading is subjective and emotional

48. Grading is inescapable

49. Grading has a limited research base

50. Grading has no single best practice

51. Grading that is faulty damages students and teachers26 Raymond School District

53. Use criterion-referenced performance standards as reference points to determine grades

54. Limit the valued attributes included in grades to individual achievement

55. Sample student performance—do not included all scores in grades

56. Grade in “pencil”, so records can be updated easily

57. Crunch numbers carefully

58. Use quality assessments and properly recorded evidence of achievement

59. Discuss and involve students in assessment, including grading, throughout the teaching/learning process27 Raymond School District