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E d Te c h S h o w D a i l y F r i d a y, F e b r u a r y 5 , 2 0 1 6 3 2 FORMATIVE, INTERIM, SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENTS: IT TAKES ALL THREE By Dr. Michael Bunch, Senior Vice President for Research and Development, Measurement Incorporated Making sure all students are college and career ready requires not only an align- ment of curriculum and instruction with college and career requirements, but also an approach to monitoring student progress on a continual basis, with in- class formative assessments, frequent interim assessments and focused summa- tive assessments. Taken together, forma- tive, interim and summative assessments support instructional decision making and enhance daily learning activities. Assessment begins with a pretest (a form of interim assessment), which not only provides an evaluation of prior instruction but also a general indication of the readiness of students for future instruction. In a sense, the pretest pro- vides information for the classroom teacher as well as instructional leaders at the school and district level. Formative assessment events may occur at any time, even multiple times in a single day. Focusing on very specific segments of instruction, they provide information to students and their teachers that is both evaluative (What have you learned?) and directive (What do we still need to do?). Depending on the level of specificity, these assessments can also be diagnostic (Why do you continue to experience difficulties in this area?). Pretests guide instruction in a general way, while formative assessments contin- ue to guide instruction in more specific ways. At each formative assessment, the teacher and student are able to assess the student's cur- rent functioning and either move forward with confi- dence that the student has mastered the current materi- al, or identify material that needs further review. Later interim assessments serve as progress checks and may also be diag- nostic if they are detailed enough. It is on this particular dimension that formative and interim assessments are most likely to differ in significant ways. Formative assessments are able to focus on such specific elements of curriculum and per- mit highly specific questions at a level of detail that would be impractical for a summative assessment and possibly even for an interim assessment. A formative assessment may devote all its items to a single content standard, while an interim assessment might focus on half a dozen, and a summative assessment all stan- dards associated with the subject. Summative assess- ments focus on the high- level concepts and rules of the course. While its items will span the full range of depth of knowledge (DOK), its content will be quite general. Such tests serve primarily to inform instructional leaders at the build- ing, district and even state level about progress of large groups of students. At Measurement Incorporated, we have always operated on the premise that assessment serves instruction. We are careful to create test items, tests, scoring rubrics and ancillary materials that blend into instructional materials and methods with a minimum of disturbance and a maximum of useful information. To view this complete white paper, "Formative, Interim, Summative Assessments: It Takes All Three," by Dr. Michael Bunch, visit www.pegwriting.com/resources. For more information, visit booth #2028. It struck me years later, as I began to get report cards for my own kids, that despite nearly three decades having passed since the scenes at my childhood kitchen table and the explosion of tech- nology, not a lot had changed. Schools were employing relatively similar tactics to communicate, assess and report stu- dent learning as it had when I was going through the system. Some of the most tech savvy and connected people I've met are teachers, yet the software they use in their profes- sional lives is borderline archaic. Why the gap? Why are teachers and adminis- trators still stuck under those piles of paper, struggling with poorly designed systems that have added even more work? What's challenging for us as a smaller, focused EdTech company, is that when we meet with districts that are tied into these behemoth systems, they are all waiting with bated breath for the solution to come from the giant platform with which they are so inter- twined. This leaves those of us that have the solution, waiting together with these districts. Everyone loses, espe- cially the teachers. The education system deserves the best the tech industry is capable of. Unfortunately, the "one stop shop" approach to EdTech software is leaving educators, and our kids, on the losing end. The solution, in my opinion, is to focus. At FreshGrade, our focus is con- FreshGrade Education (Cont'd. from p. 1) necting parents, teachers and students through the capturing, assessing and sharing of artifacts of a student's learn- ing. Our focus is parent engagement, and the hope that with continuous par- ent collaboration, the need for one or two fixed "report card seasons" will eventually disappear. We are accom- plishing this by working with educa- tors to rethink how teachers and par- ents have engaged historically and bring some modern collaboration tools into the classroom. The engagement of our users is our measurement of suc- cess and we are nimble enough to make constant improvements to that experience. I truly believe we must shift the thinking away from this idea that one old and established platform can do it all, and instead, allow some of these new, inno- vative technologies into the classroom. If we don't, I'm afraid report card season in another thirty years will look largely the same as it does today. Lane Merrifield is the Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of FreshGrade. Lane helped develop and launch Club Penguin in Kelowna, British Columbia in 2005 and played an integral role in its phenomenal growth and success. He then served as Chief Executive Officer of Disney Canada, Inc. Lane has held vari- ous technical and marketing roles with a range of companies in Canada and the United States. Lane's first job was at Disneyland. For more information, visit booth #1451. INTRODUCING THE ELMO INTERACTIVE COMMUNICATION BOX (ICB) AND ELMO PENTACLASS CLASSROOM AUDIO SYSTEM ELMO Company Ltd., a leader in educa- tion technology for more than 90 years, is pleased to introduce ELMO ICB. ELMO Interactive Communication Box lets you instruct lessons from anywhere in your classroom using your very own tablet. With the ELMO Interactive Toolbox (EIT) Software, your tablet will act as a portable interactive whiteboard to anno- tate on, manipulate and save content. The ELMO Interactive Communication Box (ICB) allows you to view the ELMO doc- ument camera image on any tablet wire- lessly. ELMO has used its expertise in classroom engagement and com- bined it with years of research in acoustics, human hearing and the connection between hearing, com- prehension and learning to create the one of a kind ELMO PentaClass Audio System. What sets the ELMO PentaClass apart from the competition is its versatility and ease of use while still maintaining amaz- ing sound quality. The ELMO PentaClass, which is offered in three models, can stay portable for easy transportation, or is easily mounted on ceilings or walls. The ABM model comes with a wireless micro- phone which can double as a remote control for vol- ume control, power on/off or to quickly transfer from microphone to Bluetooth in a matter of seconds. The Bluetooth setting allows the user to broadcast any Bluetooth device over the ELMO PentaClass. For more information, visit www.elmousa.com, call 800.947.3566 or email elmo@elmousa.com. INTRODUCING THE NUREVA SPAN CLASSROOM COLLABORATION SYSTEM An interview with Nancy Knowlton, Chief Executive Officer, Nureva. ESD: You're introducing the Nureva Span classroom collaboration system this year. How does it fit within the educa- tional technology landscape? NK: We realized there was a technology gap for student collaboration. The Span system is the perfect marriage between student devices and shared workspaces and displays. It enables all students to contribute their thoughts and input at the front-end of a whole-class or small-group collaboration process. ESD: What makes collaboration with the Span system different? NK: When you see how students take to the Span system immediately, you just know that it is different from other approaches. With little direction or inter- vention, students can get on with the work of creating and debating. Using the system, students begin generating ideas by using their individual devices, giving everyone the chance to partici- pate. Then they send these ideas to an expansive 40-foot (12.2 m) virtual canvas that's projected onto a 10- or 20- foot (3.1 or 6.1 m) interactive surface. Everyone's contributions can be dis- cussed, grouped, even argued over – stu- dents take the lead in the process. After the session is done, the work can contin- ue anywhere by accessing the canvases in the cloud. ESD: What have you heard from teachers? NK: Teachers are excited by the pos- sibilities for their students. Everything they tell us has to do with how much more engaged their stu- dents are using the Span system. It's the combination of students contributing on their personal devices and then collab- orating at the interactive wall, critically evaluating contributions and communi- cating with their classmates that seems to be the magic. For more information, go to www .nureva.com.