Assessment Literacy Leaders in Indiana (ALLIN)

Problem:

A new standardized test was introduced in Indiana. Educators and potential educators wanted help understanding how to interpret and appropriately use assessment data.

Overview:

We developed an in-person workshop with hands-on interactive activities. I led the curriculum design in collaboration with three other team members (see our website here). I also led the facilitation of all the interactive activities in the workshop.

We held several workshops at local school and district locations in Indiana as well as at the School of Education at Indiana University. We had more than 100+ educators participate in these workshops.

I also redesigned the workshop content for an online version that educators could participate in through the learning management system Canvas.

Below are examples from our workshop content.

Workshop Content

Outline for Assessment Literacy Workshop

  • Introductions

  • Assessment Literacy: Why?

  • How a test comes to life

  • Validity

  • Reliability

  • Standard Error of Measurement

  • Fairness

  • Computer-adaptive testing (CAT)

  • Purposes of your interim assessments

  • Understanding your interim assessment score reports

  • Interpreting your interim assessment score reports

Based on data collected from educators, a review of assessment curriculum, and our own expertise, we developed a list of assessment literacy standards.

After polling educators, we created an outline for the workshop that catered to their specific educational needs. Each workshop had a slightly different outline, but the general outline for the workshop is provided.

We began with a hook, helping educators see how better understanding assessment would help them in their jobs. Then, we taught various aspects of assessment based on their needs. Finally, we ended by helping educators apply what they learned to their own context.

Activity - Card Sorting

Goal: Prime educators for a discussion about the test creation process.

We separated the educators into groups of 3-4, handed them a group of cards with each step of the typical test creation process, and asked them to put the cards in order from first to last.

Then we shared the actual order for the test creation process, walked them through the process, and discussed differences between their expected order and the actual order.

The online version of this activity used a quiz where educators could drag and drop each step in the process (see below).

Online Workshop - The Case for Assessment Literacy (presentation and script)

Video Presentation

In the online version, we recorded short presentations on the different topics covered in the workshop. Those recording were posted on YouTube and then embedded within the learning management system. This is the video presentation that introduces one of the topics covered in the workshop.

01_CaseForAssessmentLiteracy.pdf

Presentation Script and PDF

These are the presentation slides with the script below. We asked workshop participants to use the "comment" feature in Google Drive to annotate the script with their comments and questions. This turned a static presentation into a collaborative process because other participants could see and respond to their peers' comments.

Activity - Workshop Application

Goal: Help educators apply the concepts from the workshop to the assessments their schools were using.

We had small application activities throughout the workshop, but the last half of the workshop was a series of activities and prompts where educators looked at their own assessments to apply what they learned.

Below are the handouts that accompanied these activities.

Workshop_WorkshopApplications.pdf