Improving Content and Instruction Through Meaningful Assessments

3 units

This course will focus on the various forms of assessments and how to create assessments aligned with standards, while also ensuring student growth is measured. The course will offer a variety of topics including: how to produce meaningful assessments; rigor vs. real-world applications and assessment; the similarities and differences in proficiency scales, scoring guides, & rubrics; how to assess when differentiating lessons; equity in assessments for students, including students with special needs, alternative assessments, and student empowerment in assessments; the purpose and importance of written feedback; performance based assessment; and using pre-post assessments to direct teaching. An understanding of how these topics are synthesized to create a coherent assessment system designed to gather evidence of student learning and provide guidance on how to instructionally respond will be developed. This system includes summative, formative, and self-assessment, as well as both formal and informal approaches to assessment.