Marzano's 5 Step Process

1. Classroom Assessment System
Summary
CUR/530
Professor Carolyn Jones
10/10/16

2. Research-Based Findings on Effective Classroom Assessment
Finding 1: Classroom assessment feedback should provide students with a clear picture of their progress on learning
goals and how they might improve.
The single most powerful modification that enhances achievement is feedback. “dollops of feedback”
Negative Effect – telling your students their answers are right/wrong
Effective – explaining and/or ask students to continue to refine their answers (20 percentile points)
Effective – displaying the results of students’ classroom assessments using graphs (26 percentile points)
Effective – students’ assessment results are interpreted by a set of “rules.” (32 percentile points)
Finding 2: Feedback on classroom assessments should encourage students to improve.
Encouraging compared to discouraging feedback
Feedback must provide students with a way to interpret low scores in a manner that does not imply failure
Feedback must communicate to students that effort on their part results in more learning
Finding 3: Classroom assessment should be formative.
Black & Wiliam’s (1998) Formative assessment done well results in a gain of 26 percentile points
No consistent definition in research
Black & Wiliam’s (1998) – “all those activities undertaken by teachers and/or by students which provide information to be
used as feedback to modify the teaching and learning activities in which they engage”
Formative assessment can and should begin immediately within a learning episode and span its entire duration.
Formative classroom assessment can take a wide variety of formal and informal formats

3. Research-Based Findings on Effective Classroom Assessment
Finding 2: Feedback on classroom assessments should encourage students to improve.
Encouraging compared to discouraging feedback
Feedback must provide students with a way to interpret low scores in a manner that does not imply failure
Feedback must communicate to students that effort on their part results in more learning
Finding 3: Classroom assessment should be formative.
Black & Wiliam’s (1998) Formative assessment done well results in a gain of 26 percentile points
No consistent definition in research
Black & Wiliam’s (1998) – “all those activities undertaken by teachers and/or by students which provide information
to be used as feedback to modify the teaching and learning activities in which they engage”
Formative assessment can and should begin immediately within a learning episode and span its entire duration.
Formative classroom assessment can take a wide variety of formal and informal formats
Finding 4: Formative classroom assessments should be frequent.
There is a direct correlation in the number of formative assessments given and a strong positive effect on student
achievement.
Frequent Formative Feedback provides students a clear picture of what they should do to improve and track their
progress.

4. Marzano's 5-step process for Creating a Comprehensive System of
Classroom Assessment
Step 1: Reconstitute state and national standards.
State and national standards articulate too much and are a major impediment to a comprehensive system of
classroom assessment
Teachers need 71% more instructional time than is currently available to address the content in state and national
standards. (Marzano, Kendall, & Gaddy, 1999).
The remedy-Standards documents can be modified to articulate a small number of measurement topics that
address single dimensions or dimensions that are closely related
Reading Comprehension
Literary Analysis
Structure and properties of matter
Forces and motion
Number sense and number systems
Addition and subtraction
Probability

5. Step 2 Design a scale that measures learning over time, and rewrite the standards according to the scale
Rubric scale (0.0 – 4.0)
0.0 represents no knowledge of the topic even with help
1.0 indicates that with help the student shows partial knowledge of the simpler details and processes as well as the more
complex ideas and processes
2.0 the student independently demonstrates understanding of and skill at the simpler details and processes but not of the more
complex ideas and processes
3.0 the students demonstrates skill and understanding of all the content simple and complex that was taught in class
4.0 represents that the student demonstrates inferences and applications that go beyond what was taught in class
Step 3 Teachers design formal and informal formative assessments using the scale.
Teachers place measurement topics in the scale (rubric).
Scale is based on Bloom’s Taxonomy
Each formative assessment must have items or tasks that students must learn for each level on the rubric
Level 2.0 might be fill-in-the –blank/multiple choice/matching
Level 3.0 – typically constructive response
Level 4.0 – comparing/classifying/creating metaphors/creating analogies/analyzing errors

6. Step 4 Use a “Value Added” approach to judging student performance.
Examining the gradual increase in knowledge for specific learning goals throughout a unit. It is powerful for a
student to see their progress over time.
Require students to chart their progress on each learning goal
Provides a visual map of their progress
Allows for powerful discussions between teacher and students
Teacher can discuss progress on each learning goal with each student
The student and teacher are better able to communicate with parents about their child’s progress.

7. Step 5: Redesign report cards-Better represent student performance
Includes academic topics
life-skill topics
participation
work completion
behavior
working in groups
Traditional letter grades are no included in the report card
Overall scale (rubric) score for each subject area/life skill area is averaged by overall topic scores for the subject
area/life skill area

8. Strategies that can be used at my school
Provide description, explanation, or example of a new term.
Ask students to restate the description, explanation, or example in their own words.
Ask students to construct a picture, pictograph, or symbolic representation of the term.
Engage students periodically in activities that help them add to their knowledge of the terms in their
vocabulary notebooks.
Periodically ask students to discuss the terms with one another
Involve students periodically in games that enable them to play with terms (Marzano, 2004)

9. References
Marzano, R.J. (2007). Designing a comprehensive approach to classroom
assessment
Reeves, D. (Ed.). Ahead of the curve: The power of assessment to transform
teaching and learning (pp. 103-125). Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.