Autumn 2006

The big picture - in education

Leading with data: curriculum mapping and assessment

Enabling students to achieve at their highest level is the goal of all teachers but the journey to that end point is often complicated. Here Jeff Colosimo and Bena Kallick reveal how using data from curriculum mapping and assessment can provide the road map.

It is difficult to arrive at your destination if you have not determined where you are going or mapped your path for getting there. Many schools are realising that the map to improving student achievement includes some key stops along the way:

1. Performance results from state tests.
2. Performance results from local benchmarks.
3. Performance results
4. from individual classrooms.
5. Curriculum aligned to standards.
6. Instructional design that is unified and aligned to standards.
7. Intersections that cross both aspects of curriculum and assessment data.

Regardless of where your journey begins, if your destination is to improve achievement for all students, you will have to make certain that you stop at each of these points and allow enough time to design, provide professional development, analyse your data and plan your next stop.

We are going to concentrate on the first three stops—using performance results to improve student achievement.

Stop 1: Performance data from the state

This stop often causes the greatest degree of dialogue. Many teachers believe that state data lacks credibility because it is not matched with their instruction. Some of the tests are not specifically matched to a standard, which adds weight to the question of credibility. In addition, the data that we receive from these tests usually comes too late, with too little specific information that can inform instruction. So, here are some tips to guide the dialogue about this data.

Firstly, make certain that you have the right people at the table. Any test for eleven year olds is basically a test for eight, nine, ten and eleven year olds. Therefore, you need to have a group of teachers from mixed year levels study the test results.

Don’t react quickly. Whenever looking at data, consider managing impulsivity. Resist jumping to conclusions or accusations. Stop and think about what the data might be saying.

Look for patterns and trends in the data. Raise questions. Use data as an opportunity for inquiry before decision-making.

Study your curriculum data. In order to know how to address any issues in your data, you need also to know what is being taught in other schools. Curriculum mapping is significant data because it reflects what is actually being taught. With the advent of good technology, curriculum that used to be a text-bound guide can be transformed into actual data.

The data transforms text to quantifiable terms. You can see where the information is being taught, how frequently, when it is being taught and to what degree it is being assessed. You can see this data from the perspective of the individual classroom, through to the whole school building, and then out to all classes in the district. When used in conjunction with technology, curriculum mapping can provide additional significant information about how to address your performance results.

Stop 2: Performance data from the local region

To deal with the credibility of alignment issue, local benchmarks can be carefully aligned to standards. In addition, results can be timely and can immediately affect instruction when the proper technologies are used. This data is likely to have far greater implications for the daily lives of students in the classroom. Here are a few important tips regarding benchmark assessments.

The quality of the results depends on the quality of the test items. Aligning items to standards is critical. It is also important to make certain that the timing of the benchmarks is in concert with the timing of the curriculum. Once again, looking at this curriculum data will give a better picture of how local teachers are covering the curriculum, how they are sequencing their instruction, and how well prepared it can be assumed students will be for the particular items that are being used in the benchmark assessments.

Consider what is being assessed or measured. Should the assessment be a measure of what has been taught so far, as well as a guide to measure how far away the final destination still may be?

Once again, although it is tempting to have the data dialogue with a particular year level, the most effective conversations for real change in the curriculum are crossgrade conversations. We often call these cross-year level conversations ‘curriculum dialogue groups’. Remember, data-driven decisions come from a thoughtful analysis of data from multiple perspectives.

Stop 3: Performance data from individual classroom assessments

A key point learnt from Total Quality Management is that the quality of the work rests in the hands of the worker. All achievement depends on students caring about their performance and wanting to improve.

Teachers often feel that their classroom assessments hold more credibility for both instruction and for student feedback than do occasional tests such as the ones discussed above. One of the most significant ways to use assessment for learning is at the classroom level. It is in the classroom that teachers are able to coach, instruct, provide rich feedback, and most significantly, help students to become more self-assessing. Following are some important tips for classroom-based assessments.

The quality of these assessments depends on a teacher’s understanding of how to design good assessments. Teachers need to know how to choose the appropriate method for assessment, such as constructed response, multiple choice or performance assessment. The method is determined by the assessment targets—what is it that you want students to demonstrate in this assessment?

Year level meetings can be very productive in this area, especially for design work. However, the design is only as good as the product that results. Time for teachers to talk about student work, analyse the results and understand more about how to coach students for improved performance is essential.

Curriculum mapping data

Each of the assessment stops discussed here leads back to curriculum and instruction. Sometimes the questions are at the individual classroom level—what can I do to more effectively address the needs of my students this year? Sometimes they come at the school level—how can we make certain that we are all providing the most consistent use of language and strategies for learning to enable our students to be more successful? Sometimes they come at the state level—do we have too many repetitions in our curriculum? Does the curriculum spiral and increase in complexity? What needs to be more important? What less? What might need to be dropped? These are only the tip of the curriculum iceberg.

Follow the map

The pathway to success for student achievement requires a road map. Although you may set out on the journey from any key stop, the map must proceed past the important road stops. And it must lead the way with data, not impressions and anecdotes.

Teachers should lead the way in using data to make decisions about improving student learning. Although the road will always have twists and turns, the right technology can provide a good GPS to help stay on track to using data for decision-making.

References

Costa, A & Kallick, B (2000). Exploring and Discovering Habits of Mind, ASCD, Alexandria, Virginia.

Stiggins, R et al (2004). Classroom Based Assessment for Student Learning, Assessment Training Institute, Portland, Oregon. Visit: www.assessmentinst.com/

Jeff Colosimo is CEO of Performance Pathways, which specialises in data-driven curriculum and assessment solutions.

Bena Kallick is an international education consultant, speaker and author.

The author owns the copyright in this article. For information related to the reuse of this work in any form please contact the publisher denise.quinn@curriculum.edu.au