Valda Harris - Vice Principal
Our teachers have always been committed to wise practice with the student at the heart of every decision. Working in collaborative teams with subject area expertise built in, our girls are challenged and engaged in their learning through the exploration of questions that lead to interdisciplinary studies of depth, breadth and interest. Conceptual understanding is the goal. Throughout our last school year our assessment teacher leaders led an ongoing discussion about our assessment practices. Three times a year, percentage and grade based report cards overshadowed powerful narratives carefully written to describe each girl as a learner within that reporting term. We had noticed for years that the weeks leading to report cards were ones in which anxiety in our girls escalated along with all of the behaviours that accompany that anxiety. Girls worked for the mark rather than the learning. Interdisciplinary learning experiences seemed to freeze as we stopped to ensure that a mark could be assigned to the work, temporarily putting inquiry and interdisciplinary exploration back into the silos of disciplines - and often, that which could be assigned marks in this way was assessing lower level learning. It was inauthentic and lacked the congruence of the rest of the programming we were providing. Our marking system was not able to accurately assess that which we truly valued and worked daily to develop: deeper understanding and the ability to transfer that understanding to new situations and other disciplines.
We left the final discussion last June with an inescapable conclusion and mandate. The assessment practice of reporting through grades was adversely affecting the teaching and learning in our school. We needed to move from graded to ungraded assessment. Our assessment needed to be ongoing and directly linked to learning so as to have an impact on daily practice. It needed to be transparent, so that everyone with a vested interest in that student could see the progress. It needed to honour the learning process at each stage of the learning. It needed to authentically represent the complexity and depth of our inquiries.
Our first term has been one of intense conversation as we seek ways of achieving our assessment goals. Our teacher leaders (Brad Stroschein, Kari Sirup and Megan Shaw) have worked tirelessly outside of their classroom commitments shaping discussions through questions and gathering feedback for what will be most helpful for teachers. They have also worked to provide evidence and research for teachers to share with parents. Finally, with the guidance of their colleagues, they have compiled tools to help bridge the language barrier as we share our daily, formative assessment practices with our families. Our principal, Judi Hadden, has met with several families for discussion after first sharing the readings and research with them. She and our superintendent, Dr. Susan Ditchburn, met with Alberta Education. Our teachers have defined the work for themselves within their teams and shared with each other to see what best meets the needs for assessment at this point in time in student learning. They also have met with families to help clarify the assessment communication process.
As a school, we are currently using Edmodo as the platform for digital student portfolios. Troubleshooting and sharing of ‘hints’ has been ongoing amongst teachers as we navigate Edmodo. Parents were invited in for some hands on tutoring. Students upload assignments and self assessment, teachers provide formative assessment and summative assessment throughout the inquiry and a summative piece at the culmination of the inquiry that communicates student levels of conceptual understanding. A kind of ‘spiral’ rubric has been developed so that we are all using common language to communicate student learning. Parents are invited to view and sometimes comment on their child’s work on a daily basis.
As we prepare for student led conferences (a celebration of the learning in this term), I look back on this fast paced journey somewhat in awe and with deep gratitude for these teachers. They are deeply engaged in and committed to creating the most meaningful learning experiences for their students and then ‘reporting’ on those experiences in ways that positively impact growth and continuous learning. Despite the positive outcomes we are anticipating and are already noticing, change is stressful. This change took courage and an enormous amount of work to get started. As a school, we are living a huge inquiry of our own and like we ask of our girls, we are ‘living in the struggle’ as we seek solutions to emerging questions and seeming roadblocks along the way. I know our process is already benefiting our students. I know our work as educators and as a learning community will continue to evolve as our assessment shapes our practice in ways we can’t even predict.
Valda, I appreciate the insights you share in describing the "living inquiry" you are experiencing as a school community as you explore assessment processes which are more authentic. If we are going to set a new direction in education in keeping with the Alberta Education Inspiring Education focus on developing engaged thinkers and ethical citizens with an entrepreneurial spirit we need to develop new, authentic assessment strategies similar to the performance-based strategies you highlight in your blog. We continue to make reference to international test scores to measure the success of our education system, but are these test scores measuring what we are striving to achieve as we transform education in Alberta?
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