Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 44 Page 45 Page 46 Page 47 Page 48 Page 49 Page 50 Page 51 Page 52 Page 53 Page 54 Page 55 Page 56Recommendation 46 There must be an extensive use of appropriate, meaningful formative assessments to gauge student progress toward competencies in all classrooms. Key Issue 3 Professional learning in developing and interpreting scoring effective assessments should be ongoing. Recommendations 47 Assessment should be a major, ongoing focus of teacher professional learning activities with extended time provided for teachers to work together to develop formative and summative assessments, establish consistency in the evaluation of assessments, interpret assessment results and use assessment results to inform instruction. 48 The state should offer school districts an effective and easy-to-use assessment data system that would provide teachers with timely access to assessment results, assistance in analyzing such data, and opportunity to communicate the meaning of the data to children and parents. Such a data system should establish basic, uniform data elements and should allow districts to enhance the system by adding data elements. School districts should be in an advisory capacity in selecting and implementing such a system. Key Issue 4 Meaningful learning for all students must be the focus of our assessment and accountability systems. Therefore, assessments should be used to improve, rather than limit, educational opportunities for all students. Large- scale assessments provide information to students, their families, school and district staff, and the state about student performance and school-wide challenges. Typically these assessments are administered for every student at that grade or course level at a predetermined time of the year. In a mastery-based learning system, a student takes a large-scale assessment when he or she is ready, not on a pre-determined time schedule. These criterion-referenced large-scale tests can become more innovative, using advances in assessment technology to address different contexts of the learning. Since more and more districts are using assessment software that provides options for students based on their readiness to master a competency, these programs should also offer students an opportunity to express their voice and choice. Recommendations 49 Learners’and teachers’work should be focused on the kinds of knowledge and skills that will contribute to student success after graduation and establish college-, career-, and citizenship-ready standards anchored in core academic knowledge and skills that recognize competencies that are critical to success. 50 Develop a system of assessment that is based on multiple measures, which include robust local assessments that can evaluate deeper learning skills as well as state standardized assessments of student performance to verify the results of local assessments. 51 An option for interested districts should have state assessments used to validate local assessments and should be given at points in a learner’s schooling that represent critical developmental junctures. Three or four times during a learner’s school experience there will also be locally written measurements to note critical developmental achievements. 52 State tests should be primarily performance-based tasks to measure acquisition, conceptual understanding, and application. 53 Accountability is grounded in rigorous assessments that both measure and promote student learning. Accountability can be used as a meaningful feedback loop in which learners, teachers, and family members check progress toward competency targets. At the local level, school staff can use data regularly to make sure all learners are on track. At the state level, policy makers and education officials can support continuous improvement of the local education systems. 54 In collaboration with stakeholders, the state should develop and adopt a comprehensive statewide accountability system based on clearly established goals for a transformed public education. 55 Academic accountability on state tests should be based on a variety of indicators that represent a balanced education, including the four core disciplines—language arts, mathematics, social studies, and science. 56 School accountability should be based on longitudinal assessment results of learner cohorts more than on a year-to- year comparison of different cohorts. Accountability should also be based partially on success of students at the next level. Therefore, elementary school accountability should be based partially on student success at the middle school. Middle school accountability should be based partially on student success at the high school. High school accountability should be based partially on student success in college, career and citizenship. 57 The state accountability system should include rewards for schools based on increases in student performance and reductions in the achievement gap. 58 School districts should develop and implement an accountability system based on district education goals that are aligned with state education goals and a state accountability system, and that include clearly defined measures of school district, school, and student success. LEVERAGE TECHNOLOGY GUIDING PRINCIPLES » There should be equitable access for all students to devices and high-speed broadband networks. » Technology can facilitate the record keeping for schools, teachers and students of progress RECOMMENDATIONS | 44