What's Common in Evidence-Based Grading?
Justin Fisk - World Languages Director
1. Common goals
In the case of our World Language classrooms, the three modes of communication that form the core of our standards now drive our teams’ conversations. By adopting the central standards of our professional organization (ACTFL, in the case of World Languages), we’re also far more aligned with what second language acquisition research calls “best practices.” Importantly, we now all have the same learning outcomes for kids in mind as we’ve shifted from a curricular/assessment model that emphasized discrete skills and word sets to one that’s instead predicated on communicative competencies. We haven’t abandoned the supporting structures that serve as the building blocks of language, we’ve simply reprioritized what matters most.
2. Common language
One of the biggest benefits of our transition to EBR has been the resultant common understanding and common language that have accompanied our now-common goals. Not only do we now have great consensus and cohesion around what we want kids to gain from being in our classes, our teams literally use the same terms to describe students’ interaction with assessment and content in our courses. The capacity for greater articulation across teams and across programs has definitely been enhanced.
3. Common targets
Six common EBR learning targets across four of our languages (Chinese, French, German, and Spanish) means a lot of opportunities for articulation, both within and between our programs. Our ELL team has also enjoyed an entrée into EBR this year as our Beginning course has paired targets that emphasize English language development (ELD) with English language arts (ELA).
4. Common Assessments
Though we had already begun a move to a performance-based model of assessment before our wide-scale adoption of EBR, it was with our shift to EBR that we really started to see how transformative a process-based approach to assessment could be. Our teams’ feedback sheets and dialogic co-constructive feedback process in which students use evidence from performance to gauge their own strengths and areas for growth represent a big shift in how we approach assessment. Assessment is no longer viewed as a set-piece event, but rather as a fluid and dynamic process that involves students more intimately in their own learning.
5. Common Data and Common responses
I think we’d all agree that unless data serve as a call to action, there can be little inherent value. No longer are our teams mired in discussions around CRT data that resulted at their worst in superficial alterations to selected-response exams. With a common set of targets, a common set of expectations for learning, a common understanding of where our kids should be heading, and a grading and reporting process that is utterly transparent and linked to transcendent learning outcomes, our teams are beginning to do things with data that had never been imagined before. EBR has spurred plenty of innovations in the types of data we’re analyzing, such as student-generated reflections in which students identify areas of strength and areas for growth. Admittedly, we’re still in the process of building our capacity to make use of all this new information, but pivot tables have never been more exciting.
In the case of our World Language classrooms, the three modes of communication that form the core of our standards now drive our teams’ conversations. By adopting the central standards of our professional organization (ACTFL, in the case of World Languages), we’re also far more aligned with what second language acquisition research calls “best practices.” Importantly, we now all have the same learning outcomes for kids in mind as we’ve shifted from a curricular/assessment model that emphasized discrete skills and word sets to one that’s instead predicated on communicative competencies. We haven’t abandoned the supporting structures that serve as the building blocks of language, we’ve simply reprioritized what matters most.
2. Common language
One of the biggest benefits of our transition to EBR has been the resultant common understanding and common language that have accompanied our now-common goals. Not only do we now have great consensus and cohesion around what we want kids to gain from being in our classes, our teams literally use the same terms to describe students’ interaction with assessment and content in our courses. The capacity for greater articulation across teams and across programs has definitely been enhanced.
3. Common targets
Six common EBR learning targets across four of our languages (Chinese, French, German, and Spanish) means a lot of opportunities for articulation, both within and between our programs. Our ELL team has also enjoyed an entrée into EBR this year as our Beginning course has paired targets that emphasize English language development (ELD) with English language arts (ELA).
4. Common Assessments
Though we had already begun a move to a performance-based model of assessment before our wide-scale adoption of EBR, it was with our shift to EBR that we really started to see how transformative a process-based approach to assessment could be. Our teams’ feedback sheets and dialogic co-constructive feedback process in which students use evidence from performance to gauge their own strengths and areas for growth represent a big shift in how we approach assessment. Assessment is no longer viewed as a set-piece event, but rather as a fluid and dynamic process that involves students more intimately in their own learning.
5. Common Data and Common responses
I think we’d all agree that unless data serve as a call to action, there can be little inherent value. No longer are our teams mired in discussions around CRT data that resulted at their worst in superficial alterations to selected-response exams. With a common set of targets, a common set of expectations for learning, a common understanding of where our kids should be heading, and a grading and reporting process that is utterly transparent and linked to transcendent learning outcomes, our teams are beginning to do things with data that had never been imagined before. EBR has spurred plenty of innovations in the types of data we’re analyzing, such as student-generated reflections in which students identify areas of strength and areas for growth. Admittedly, we’re still in the process of building our capacity to make use of all this new information, but pivot tables have never been more exciting.