Using Formative Assessment to Support Student Learning Objectives

M. Christina Schneider, Robert L. Johnson

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781317233091
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Didattica
• Subtopic: Didattica generale

As student learning objectives become an increasingly prominent approach to setting goals and growth measures in schools, teachers' competence in formative assessment is essential. Using Formative Assessment to Support Student Learning Objectives introduces current and future educators to SLOs as tools for shaping career- and college-ready students. Written in concise and straightforward language, and replete with step-by-step exercises, real-life examples, and illustrative charts, this useful guide provides pre- and in-service educators with the theoretical background and practical tools needed to implement the latest SLO research in their classrooms.

1
Introduction to Student Learning Objectives

Importance of Formative Assessment for SLOs

Formative assessment practices can guide teachers in making decisions about future instruction. Methods of assessment can include, but are not limited to, anecdotal notes, exit slips, learning logs, think-pair-share activities, and analyzing student work from embedded assessments. When a teacher analyzes evidence of student learning and uses that information to either adjust instruction or provide feedback, he or she is using formative classroom assessment practice (Brookhart, Moss, and Long, 2008). The formative assessment theory of action is based in the idea that a teacher identifies where a child is, determines what the child needs next, and supports the child in closing the gap between where she is and the learning target. The action a teacher takes, however, can increase, decrease, or not influence student learning, depending upon if the action taken was the correct action for that student at that moment in time. This is why researchers have cautioned that formative assessment actions are not accurate and effective unless they result in increases in student learning (Brookhart, 2009; Nichols, Meyers, and Burling, 2009; Shepard, 2009).

Helping teachers learn formative assessment skills is critical to student learning. To understand and monitor student learning over time, however, a teacher cannot focus on the number of correct responses a child is providing. Rather, the teacher must systematically analyze student work to determine if what a child can do represents more sophisticated reasoning and content acquisition than was observed previously. The teacher must recognize that within a single standard is often a range of content- and thinking-skill difficulty that can be measured. This range represents different stages of reasoning. Most important, standards are not objectives that a teacher can check off. Some standards are precursors to other standards, whereas some standards are intended to represent more advanced thinking and summative, year-end expectations. Moreover, grade-level difficulty of some standards is centered in the content of other standards in the same grade. This especially applies in mathematics and science. Therefore, no standard can truly be measured in isolation.

With high quality formative assessment practices, one expects a clear link between the findings of what a child can do currently, what a child needs to be able to do next to meet the learning goal, and what subsequent actions lead to gains in student learning (Nichols, Meyers, and Burling, 2009; Wiliam, 2010). That is, formative assessment practices at their core focus on growth of student knowledge and skills. Teacher actions are intended to be personalized for each student to help the student move his or her own learning forward. Therefore, formative assessment practices are implicitly tied to the goals of the Student Learning Objective (SLO) process that many states now use as the student growth measure.

SLOs, Learning Goals, Growth Targets, Baseline Data, and State Standards

The SLO process is a student-focused goal setting procedure that supports and can improve teacher practice in analyzing student work and using evidence of student learning to take action. The first intended outcome of the SLO process is to measure and support year-long increases in reasoning and content-skill acquisition for all students. To measure these outcomes teachers have to either create or select assessments that measure SLO learning goals. The SLO learning goal is broader and deeper than a learning goal for a single lesson or unit of instruction. It is intended to describe what student proficiency in the content area represents. When the SLO measure is aggregated across students, the second intended outcome for the SLO is commonly a student achievement measure that is used as one indicator in a teacher effectiveness system. SLOs have different components that are typically presented in a state template for teachers to fill out. Table 1.1 defines important terms associated with the SLO process.

Student Learning Objectives Embody Formative Assessment Practices

An SLO is intended to be a student-centered goal setting process. First, the teacher establishes a year-long or course-long learning goal that is essential for students to know and be able to do as they move forward into the next grade or course. The teacher uses this learning goal to collect baseline information about where students are in their learning in the beginning of the year or course, specifies what the outcome of growth looks like for the student, and then monitors student achievement of these growth goals in a formalized, documented process that is specified by the state or district.

SLOs are designed to encourage and support reflective teacher practice. It is the study and reflection about what students can do currently that assists teachers in identifying students who are in different stages of learning. Once the different stages are illuminated, teachers can then determine differentiated instructional actions. When instructional actions are not specifically targeted to a student’s needs, student achievement can suffer (Schneider and Meyer, 2012).

States and districts are beginning to require SLOs for all teachers (Hall, Gagnon, Thompson, Schneider, and Marion, 2014;

Table 1.1 Key Components of the SLO Process

Term	Definition	Example
Student Learning Objective Process	The SLO is a student-focused goal setting procedure that is intended to provide a within-year measure of student learning.	Completed templates are available on many state department of education websites, or www.nciea.org/library/recent-publications/slo-toolkit
SLO Learning Goal	The SLO learning goal is an overarching big idea that synthesizes and integrates multiple standards. It requires a year's worth of learning to reach, and it encompasses foundational skills for success in the next grade.	A kindergarten student will use a variety of strategies to add and subtract when presented real-world problems.
Growth Target	The growth target is an individualized student learning goal or “target” that defines the intended growth outcome for students after a year of instruction.	Kindergarten students who began the year in the Beginningstage of development will move to Developing.They will create a drawing or model to solve addition and subtraction problems presented real-world contexts.
Baseline Data	Baseline data describe where the students are in regard to the SLO Learning Goal prior to instruction. Sometimes, baseline data are collected with a pre-test.	Six kindergarten students are in the Beginningstage of the SLO Learning Goal. They can combine and separate sets of manipulatives and then use counting to determine the sum or difference when numbers are within 5.
State Standards	State standards define the grade-level knowledge, content skills, and thinking abilities a state expects students to demonstrate by the end of the year.	www.corestandards.org
Assessment	An assessment is a measurement tool designed, in the SLO context, to measure the SLO Learning Goal.	A series of carefully designed performance tasks that elicit student thinking skills and content knowledge in regard to the SLO Learning Goal.

Lacireno-Paquet, Morgan, and Mello, 2014). South Carolina, for example, has moved from using large-scale assessment data to classroom-based SLOs as a student achievement measure in the teacher effectiveness system because policymakers desire that teachers focus on how to personalize learning for students. When teachers are able to set the learning goals for students and use reflective practices that support formative assessment, they are better able to determine the different learning paths of students in their classroom.

Why Are SLOs Important?

SLOs, when done well, are not additional activities to what an effective teacher does each day. SLOs are tools teachers use to think about what student reasoning looks like along the path of mastering state standards. It is this aspect of SLOs that makes them so valuable. They are essentially classroom-based formative and summative assessment processes that center a teacher’s focus on a fundamental theme: What is most important for students to master in a particular grade to be well prepared for the next grade?

Figure 1.1 Sample Grade 1 SLO Learning Goal

Gill, Bruch, and Booker (2013) reported many teachers value SLOs for professional development and planning. High-quality SLOs require a sustained amount of professional development investment in formative assessment techniques and in creating high quality assessments. Given our experience supporting teachers with this process, we find teachers and administrators typically need more than 80 hours of professional development to build the readiness skills that are the foundation for this process.

Just as students need multiple opportunities to learn content before testing, teachers need the opportunity to practice and learn the sophisticated formative assessment skills that underpin the SLO process prior to their official implementation. Many states have not typically required that teachers be formally trained in formative assessment or the creation of high quality assessments (Popham, 2009; Stiggins and Herrick, 2007); yet, this is a skill that is often associated with being a highly-qualified teacher. The SLO process necessitates substantial teacher skill in the collection, interpretation, and triangulation of evidence of student learning. We focus on the development of teacher skills in developing embedded formative assessments that will provide evidence of student learning and methods of analyzing student work for increases in student ability.

SLO Models

No single SLO model has been implemented across the nation. However, it is essential to note that all SLO processes begin with the development of the SLO learning goal. Marion and Buckley (2016) posited that the SLO learning goal should be based upon high leverage knowledge and skills, often referred to as a “big idea” of the discipline. Riccomini, Sanders, Bright, and Witzel (2009) wrote that big ideas should form the conceptual foundation for instruction. Big ideas connect current and future learning with previous learning. Thus, the big idea connects previous, current, and future learning i...