21st Century Assessments in Jewish Day Schools

There is no accountability system forcing day schools to use assessment tests. But that does not mean that there are not compelling reasons to do so. The truth is, assessment done right can help us answer many of the pressing questions facing our families, community members and our staff and faculty. For example:

Parent: How is my child doing?

Teacher: What can I do to better support this child’s learning?

Principal: Are our students ready for the next phase of their educational journey?

Board member: How does our school compare to other schools?

Head of school: How can we market the academic advantages of attending our specialized programs and encourage donors to give?

Director of Jewish studies: How do we support a rigorous Jewish studies program and integrate Jewish concepts throughout the general studies program?

Director of admissions: What should I tell prospective parents about how students perform here?

Student: Have I learned this year?

Before we attempt to answer these important questions for our stakeholders, we need to ensure that the assessments we choose are appropriate for our community, and demonstrate the kinds of learning that we value in education. Linda Darling Hammond, emeritus professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Education, says, “What tests measure matters because what is on the tests tends to drive instruction.” That is, you get what you test.

Measuring 21st Century Skills

Many educational leaders still perceive assessments as a typical fill-in-the-bubble assessment, but the testing industry has finally started to catch up with decades of research to support students’ 21^st century learning. With the new expectations set forth in the national accountability systems, and updated standards, most testing publishers are going through an overhaul and a change in mindset.

Most Jewish day schools have the freedom to choose the assessments they want that align with what we value in education. Most of us agree that we would like assessments that not only answer some of the questions of our stakeholders above, but also give students the opportunity to demonstrate reasoning, individual personalized growth and design thinking. Do such assessments exist? Yes.

Measuring Reasoning to Inform Instruction

When students use reasoning, we often expect them to cite evidence. Thanks in large part to the cost-reductions brought about by technology and the advances within the measurement community, innovative items that measure reasoning have now appeared on most assessments. They are often referred to as either “forced choice” or “open ended.” For example, one way the industry has turned a multiple choice recall question into a “forced choice” question that measures higher level thinking is to include justification or reasoning in the answer choices (Figure 1).

At Yavneh Day School, for example, our 4^th through 8^th grade students participated in the new Writing Assessment Program (WrAP) offered by the Educational Records Bureau (ERB). Our students were required to read 1-3 short articles and answer both forced choice and open-ended questions, both of which required citing evidence and demonstrating their reasoning process (Figures 1 and 2).

Figure 1. Forced Choice Measuring Reasoning

Figure 2: Open-Ended Question Measuring Reasoning

In mathematics, reasoning is at the heart of numerical proficiency. This is why, at Yavneh, we offer the Middle School Math Reasoning Inventory (MSMRI) to every 4^th and 5^th grade student to see if they have the prerequisite numerical reasoning to jump into middle school math. When we listen to students explain their thinking, we can hear the strategies and understandings they use to compute mentally and make estimates. For example, in this open-ended question, “What is 99 plus 17,” we can listen to students’ reasoning process and record their explanations. In this example, we can see if students apply reasoning appropriate to the numbers at hand, like “Added 100 + 17, and then subtracted 1,”or they use reasoning not appropriate, such as counting up by 1s, often using their fingers. Both students may get the answer correct, but the one with the more sophisticated reasoning has a better chance of being successful in higher-level mathematics courses. 

Figure 3: Students’ Explanations Recorded on the Math Reasoning Inventory

This example is among a series of questions in the Middle School Math Reasoning Inventory, designed by Marilyn Burns and colleagues at Math Solutions (www.mathsolutions.com), and offered for free online as part of a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (www.mathreasoninginventory.com). The tool includes assessments in three domains—whole numbers, fractions, and decimals. The benefit of this assessment is that the teacher/interviewer can hear firsthand students’ reasoning process when solving a multitude of math problems, and focus on those areas in their next phases of instruction. A disadvantage is the time-intensive nature of this personalized assessment. It can take up to 90 minutes to test one student over the course of three mathematical domains.

Personalizing Assessments to Measure Individual Growth

One way to overcome the challenge of time-sensitivity for personalized assessments is to utilize technology as the source for asking questions to multiple students at the same time. At Yavneh, we also administer the Children’s Progress Academic Assessment (CPAA), originally designed by Columbia and MIT, and offered from the Northwest Evaluation Research Association (NWEA) to students in the primary grades (PK-3^rd). In this 20-minute online assessment, students engage with a computerized instructor, answering questions and getting feedback on both literacy and mathematics skills. The assessment is adaptive in nature (i.e., it gets harder as they get the questions correct), and provides hints to students when they get the question wrong. For example, as shown in Figure 4, students may be asked to spell “crown” by clicking on individual letters. If the students spell it incorrectly, another question appears that helps scaffold the information (right), asking them to choose the correct spelling among common distractors. By providing immediate feedback to the students, as well as a second chance with some hints, this assessment attempts to mimic the student-teacher interaction and embed instruction throughout the course of the experience.

Figure 4: Scaffolding in Action—A Test That Teaches (https://mapnebraska.wikispaces.com/file/view/CPAA_Children%27s_Progress_one-sheet_June12%5B1%5D.pdf)

One of the most impressive advantages of this assessment, in addition to its short duration and built-in instruction, is the detailed narrative reports for parents and teachers stating explicitly what students got correct (with or without a hint), as well as at-home and in-class activities that support student learning. In addition, this assessment suggests groups of students for teachers to help support differentiated instruction. We offer the CPAA up to three times a year for our students, in order to measure growth and provide feedback within and across years of school.

For students in grades three through eight, we administer NWEA’s Measures of Academic Progress (MAP), an online adaptive assessment, which provides results that can be interpreted on a “growth chart.” Often touted as one of the premier innovators in measurement and assessment, NWEA has been utilizing its technological prowess to produce technology-enhanced items that test a broad range of items across Depth of Knowledge levels, which categorizes tasks according to the complexity of thinking required to successfully complete them (Recall and Reproduction, Skills and Concepts, Strategic Thinking, Extended Thinking).

By utilizing their easy-to-read reports, students can see their progress and set goals for themselves within and across years. In addition, a percentile rank is provided in the report to offer a comparison to their peers within and across schools, and to be used as an eligibility factor for national gifted and talented programs.

Interactive Scenario-based Tasks to Measuring Design Thinking

The assessment industry continues to develop new advances with greater educational benefits. This year Yavneh will have the opportunity to participate in the new innovative items offered on the National Assessment for Educational Progress (NAEP). In the new NAEP science interactive tasks (Figure 5), students have 20 minutes to “predict the effect of the freeze/thaw cycle on concrete sidewalk.” Students first investigate what happens to the volume of water when it freezes. Then they use the results to predict and test what will happen when water freezes in the cracks of a concrete sidewalk.