Update from Bismarck

I guess I should have taken a picture of something so this post would have a little flair. What would you all have liked to see? The front of the Doublewood? The room we were in? The chicken enchiladas we had for lunch? Really, there was not much to see today. We did work.

Today CTB-McGraw Hill representatives were present to go through a selection of questions from previous state assessment tests. These were not the questions from the tests that our students took this school year, but rather they were questions that have not been in the test for several years and could be used in the near future. These questions were already aligned to the North Dakota State Standards and Benchmarks. Our task was to read the selections, review the questions, and decide if we agreed with the Standard and Benchmark that each question was assigned. Then, we decided if the level of difficulty was assigned correctly to each question.

That was long and wordy. In a nutshell, what I learned today is:

1. Each question on the ND State Assessment assesses one benchmark from the standards.
2. We should remind students before they take the test that the 'topics' of the reading selections are relatively unimportant. It is the 'skill' that each question is assessing that is important. Let me clarify a little. When a student reads a passage, they will not be questioned on their background knowledge of the topic. They will be carrying out skills from the reading or writing benchmarks (identify a particular literary term, analyze a small part of the passage, edit for content, edit for purpose, edit for parallel structure, etc.) As a group, we got caught up in whether or not our students would know a lot about the topics the passages were about. The topics are irrelevant. It is the skills that are assessed.
3. Questions are constantly being written to fill gaps in covering the benchmarks.
4. Many states purchase practice tests to give their students the chance to be comfortable with the type of test and review any gaps they may have in knowledge. ND does not.
5. In the next few months, ND will be going through the process of choosing a vendor for the state assessment (RFP). The contract with CTB is up. Contact DPI if you know of a test vendor they should consider.
6. There are tests available (some states are already using them) that actually assess a student's ability to write, not fill in a dot. Acuity Writing is an example that West Virginia uses and loves.
7. We are the ones that need to push for change. E-mail me, each other, DPI, ND Representatives, whoever - just start pushing for the changes we need in testing in our state. We are - SUPER TEACHERS!

I am sure there is more I will think of as I process the day's work. I will update as needed.

We did not and will not be doing any revisions of the ND State Standards and Benchmarks during these two days. The two days are strictly for aligning assessment questions with the standards and benchmarks. I will try to remember to ask if there is going to be any revision work in the future. I better make a list :)

We tried to stress that research shows that students do better when they know the expectation ahead of time. As we were reviewing each item, we were able to see what standard and benchmark each had been assigned to. We stressed that students would do better if they knew which standard and benchmark each question was assessing. Isn't that why we use rubrics and show the students the rubric before they even begin the paper, project, speech, etc? I will try to find someone to listen who has the power to make this happen. On the list!

For those of you who study the individual test reports that come (ours just came a few days ago), you know that the test is broken down by benchmark and the number of questions for each is shown. We voiced serious concern about the benchmarks that are only assessed by one or two questions. One or two, whether right or wrong, does not show mastery or lack of mastery. They swear more questions are currently being written.

The content of the materials my group worked on today is strictly confidential, as it should be. Please do not ask me or any of the team members what questions we reviewed. We signed confidentiality agreements, and we certainly do not want to go to jail!

More tomorrow. Remember - you can contact me at any time via e-mail. My Palm gets all my e-mails as soon as you send them to my sendit address.