Assessment Now Conference - Grand Rapids Michigan

I was lucky enough to attend the Assessment Now Conference last week in Grand Rapids Michigan. I was able to hear many educational experts including Thomas Guskey, Nicole Vagle, Eric Twadell, Cassandra Erkins, and others.



The message from the conference is clear - Get your district involved in the following process and student learning will increase - dramatically!

Step 1 - Form strong collegial/PLC teams
Step 2 - Prioritize  standards
Step 3 - Create targets/success criteria
Step 4 - Design quality common assessments
Step 5 - Design Engaging Formative assessments to track student learning
Step 6 - Create Student Self Assessment sheets/organizers to help students track their learning
Step 7 - Get together with your team  to analyze results and discuss what worked and what didn't
Step 8 - Identify students who get it and those that don't and differentiate to their needs

Every presenter shared a part of this process or something that supported this process. In fact, it was shared that the PLC process will be taking over the #1 position in Hattie's list of learning effects. Wow!

Many of the presenters also made clear that we must create Engaging Formative assessments to get students to commit to the work. Doing the same thing we have always done will not create better results. It is time to roll up our sleeves and get busy because it is crystal clear what works!