Cultivating Growth: How to Build a Positive Assessment Culture

Hello, everyone. My name is Steven Blackburn from district administration, and welcome to our webinar here today, which is entitled cultivating growth, how to build a positive assessment culture. And all this is brought to you by the general support of our sponsor with us here today, Instructure. Now for some very quick housekeeping items, and we'll get right to the presentation. So this webinar will have a quick poll near the beginning. To participate, just click directly on the questions when you see them appear on your screen.

At the end of our main presentation, there will be a live q and a, with our panelists here, and you can submit your questions now until the very end. You can do that via the red ask question box. It's the one at the bottom of your screen. You can also safely download an infographic that's related to today's presentation, and you can do that. It's, a blue box there with the paperclip also at the bottom of your screen.

Additionally, at the end of the presentation, so after the live q and a, a post event survey will launch on your screen automatically. So we just ask that you please stay on until the very end so you can take part. But it's also there. Another thing at the bottom of the screen is the, pink box there if you need to jump off early because we'd love to hear from you. And lastly, you'll be pleased to know that all of all of you in attendance and everyone who registered, you will all receive an email from us at DA later tomorrow.

And in that email, it will include a link to the slides as well as the on demand recording. So look out for that in your inboxes. And now it is my pleasure to introduce our moderator who will be leading today's discussion. And our moderator today is Marcus Fu, who is principal's, specialist at Instructure. Marcus, it's great to have you with us today.

You may now begin. Thank you, Steven, and thank you everyone for, joining us today on this, timely topic on, a positive assessment culture. Today, I'm, joined by, two panelists, who, have a lot of experience in developing a positive assessment culture. And so, if we could start out with Kyra, if you could please introduce yourself. Hi, everyone.

My name is Kyra Durant. I'm the coordinator of instructional technology for Campbell Union High School District in San Jose, California. So it's, like, still the morning time for me over here. I started this position as the coordinator of, instructional technology for the district in January of twenty twenty one. And before that, I was a classroom teacher for about thirteen years.

I taught high school social science, mostly AP government, to sophomores and seniors, before that. So I come to this job with, still feeling very fresh out of the out of the classroom, and I support six high schools, five comprehensive high schools and a continuation high school and an adult ed program, over here in California. Thank you so much, Kyra. Ron, would you like to introduce yourself? Sure. My name is Ron Farrow.

I am the superintendent of schools for DeSoto seventy three School District. That's just south of Saint Louis, Missouri. This is my first year as superintendent. I have served as assistant superintendent before that for curriculum instruction and assessment here for three years. Was a building principal, here and at another district at elementary level for six years, and then I was a classroom teacher for twelve years before that.

So, like Kyra, just kind of a variety of experiences with education. And this is certainly a topic on the top of our minds and something I'm passionate about, because I think it it plays a big role in students seeing success. Awesome. Thank you so much for introducing yourselves. And so, we'd like to start to set the stage for the discussion we're having today, back in twenty twenty three.

Instructure did some research with hand the Hanover Research Group and, essentially, understanding the state of assessment in k twelve education. And here are some of the findings that we we found in regards to, the surveys that we administered and that seventy five percent of teachers say that their school promotes a strong assessment focused culture. And so when we really think about that, right, assessment, it's it's it's a pivotal part of the educational process. Right? It's how we gather information about how our students are doing in regards to achieving specific objectives, specific measures. Right? And so how do we ensure that our focus on assessment is meaningful for students, teachers, and administrators, right, and and put in a positive light? And so we'd like to poll, our participants here today, and ask you all about your respective, educational settings, right, whether you're at a school, within a school district or a charter school system.

And if you could just quickly answer this poll question, right, like Steven had mentioned just by clicking on one of these selections. How does your school or district generally feel about assessment? And so we'll give you about, forty five seconds to a minute to answer this question. And I will, jump in really quick, Marcus, just to say that if for for whatever reason you're having problems interacting with the poll, feel free to drop your answers, in the in the chat if you wanna do it publicly, or you can also share your answers via the q and a box if you want it to be private. But right now, we're at forty six percent of attendees. So, we're getting a good amount, but we'll see if we can get any more.

Alright. I think a sixty seven, sixty eight percent response rate is pretty good. I I think my, my dissertation chair would have been happy with that response rate. So, let's go ahead and look at the results of our of our poll. So forty six percent of our audience today, finds that their school or district, promotes a positive assessment culture, right, where everyone understands the value of assessment, and they feel confident about its role in elevating student success.

We've got about a little over twenty one percent of our participants feeling neutral, right, about assessment. It's important, but we don't have a strong any strong feelings either way about it. And then thirty two percent, a little bit more than thirty two percent of our audience, feels that many students, teachers, and administrators express some level of dread about assessment, which is very understandable. Right? We've got those various stakeholders, involved in the assessment process. Right? From from the students and their parents or guardians to the classroom educators, school administrators, and then district level administrators.

Right? All all feeling perhaps a different way about assessment. And so that's where we wanna center this conversation today in regards to, developing that positive assessment culture. It's essentially let's start this conversation with how is assessment viewed today in your respective districts. And so let's start with Kyra. I'm so I'm so interested by these poll results because I'm my I'm like, this forty six percent that's, like, positive, I'm like, we gotta get some of those people here on this webinar also.

Because I just I just saw the movie Inside Out two. I feel like I'm late to the game on that one, but Inside Out one two is Inside Out number one, kinda new idea. But, I generally, in our district, it was, like, anxiety and fear driving the console around assessment. Maybe even sometimes sadness and joy was not often driving conversations around assessment in our district. And part of that, I don't think, was assessment in our district.

And part of that, I don't think, was in people not understanding the importance of it. I just think that, this idea of assessment, one thing that I found when I started really talking to teachers about assessment was that there was just this really big idea of what assessment meant, and everybody came to the table with, like, a different definition of assessment. So one of the first things that we really had to do, before we even started to talk about how assessment was like, how we felt about it, how we viewed it, was to understand what we actually were talking about when we talked about assessment. So breaking down, like, formative assessment, summative assessment, not just those two terms, but then even deeper. Like, does an assessment just mean multiple choice questions? Does an assessment just is it always really long? Is it always something that we have to do because the state tells us that we have to do? To what extent is it a part of the teaching and learning process in the room? To what extent does it feel like an extra burden that needs that's brought into the classroom by outside forces.

And so, really, I think what I found was there was a lot of fear and anxiety and big feelings about assessment until we really, like, sat down and talked about, like, what do we actually mean when we're talking about assessment. And most of the time, what we're talking about was, like, lower stakes, formative assessment, assessment for learning where students were involved in part at least part of the process. And if they weren't, that teachers were really involved in the process. So, that idea of, like, ownership and that was the first step, I think, in really starting to get on the same page as far as how our district was teachers, leaders, administrators in the district reviewing assessment was really trying to, like, unpack the backpack full of big feelings and find, like, where what were those big feelings attached to and which of those things that the big feelings were attached to could we kind of put to the side because they were these ideas about assessment that I think have built over time. When you're talking about things like, again, terms like standardized testing and state testing and high stakes testing, when you kind of put some of that to the side and bring it more into the classroom, and more into the hands of teachers and their students.

So in my in my experience, there was a lot of, anxious feelings and fearful feelings around assessment that started to change really just with initial conversations around what kinds of the different kinds of assessments and the kinds of assessments we are talking about specifically in our district. That's a really fantastic perspective in in helping educators own the assessment process more and really differentiating the the types of assessments that they do in the classroom from those high stakes standardized tests, that might be given at the end of the year. And and in them knowing more and owning more of the process, that had that there there was that capability or you set the foundation or the environment for that cultural shift. Ron, talk to us a little bit about how your district views assessment today. Yeah.

I agree. And I I think that, a lot of that dread comes from exactly what Kyra was talking about. Teachers kind of feeling like assessments were the end result and not necessarily part of the process, almost evaluative in nature of seeing those results. And thirty to forty percent of my kids aren't getting it or fifty to sixty percent or seventy to eighty percent of my kids aren't getting it and just feeling like they're a failure. But that's our target board.

That's, that's our check. That's what helps us know how to work smarter and not harder, and use that content. And so I think that, those conversations about assessment for learning and even how we can take some of assessment data and learn how to spiral back and ensure that we're, you know, teaching the content that's needed to help every kid get caught up. Because every kid's not on a flat line. They're all over the place.

And so as educators, we have a big responsibility in the classroom to try to meet kids where they are. And assessment data really helps us group that together, and be able to provide the needed instruction to get kids where they need to be. And I think, tech tools as we dive deeper into what is an effective assessment, you know, how do we make sure we're going to the depth of our state standards that we're learning for? How do we prepare these kids for these state assessments that come up? I think we're also going to learn, just how we can help these students take ownership of their learning and teachers take ownership of these assessments so, that they're really understanding what assessments can do for us and how these tech tools can provide snapshots of immediate data, that we can use, immediate analysis of the data to help us work again smarter and not harder. I really like that perspective of working smarter and not harder and utilizing that data. Right? The this assessment is for learning.

Right? And so, Ron, can you talk to us a little bit about some of the structures in place that you've got where where teachers are able to capture that data real quickly, talk through it maybe in a data talk with their PLCs, and then take action on that data. Well, and I think that kinda started our journey, with with utilizing tools like Mastery Connect. You know, starting out, I think we had a very good PLC process where teachers were diving into and analyzing assessment data. We didn't have necessarily a program that analyzed it for us, but we created spreadsheets, so teachers could break the data down and see where kids were in the spectrum of mastery for the content. And it was very good conversations, open conversations about how each one of the teachers did.

So we were very transparent with our data. We learned how to be vulnerable with our data. And if we were not the strongest one in the room as far as how our students performed, it was a great opportunity for us to find out maybe some things that other teachers were doing that could help us out. And so I think having a strong PLC culture before we started really diving into that positive assessment culture helped out because that's part of part of the process. Now that, we had a strong PLC, we really started to move into levels of proficiency and assessment.

What is assessment right? Backwards design. If we know we wanna dive into the depths of the standards because our students just aren't performing where we want them to be, then how do we create really valid, rich assessments that give us valuable usable data so that we know exactly where they are on that spectrum, how we can meet them where they are, and how we can get them to where we want them to be. And that's, serendipitously where MasteryConnect happened to come into our district and where we started because it did start to provide that immediate snapshot and analysis data for our team. So as they're having these organic PLC conversations on how students did, now they have an immediate item analysis. They have, a teacher comparison.

They have tracker comparisons, and they can really start to see, this data come together and use it in a much more efficient way than creating spreadsheets, breaking that spreadsheet down, analyzing amongst amongst the team. So doing a lot of the same things, just not in as efficient a way. And then by having that tool, they feel like they can use their time more wisely to use the data to drive instruction forward. And I think that's where a positive assessment culture comes from because teachers feel like this data is being used for something positive. They're seeing growth in their students.

The second assessment is really where the positivity comes from. The first one, you find out that your kids don't understand it. But if you can use that data and drive growth, that second assessment where you really see, oh my goodness. Now my seventy, eighty percent that didn't understand it, it's down to forty or fifty percent. And I can cycle back and continue that growth until all of my kids get it.

It's not an unreachable goal. So those structures in place of strong PLC, strong understanding of your standards, levels of proficiency of how to use data to drive instruction, and then, of course, some tech tools to help you along the way such as MasteryConnect or program that can provide those snapshots of of analysis. It's huge in helping you drive student achievement. I love that idea where you can really visualize and see the results or or the growth of your learners. And I think that really does tug at an educator's heartstrings, right, to see the growth of their students, see that they're having a positive impact on on their students' growth, and all of it to be visualized for them in a program, really can make that that positive assessment culture happen.

So, this leads us to to to our next question, which is why does assessment still matter? Right? I think part of, Ron's most recent response kinda answers that question at the classroom level. But, Kira or Kyra, sorry, if you could talk a little bit about why, why assessment matters at the various levels, within your school district. Yeah. The the assessment journey that we are on right now that we're, like, really in the depths of year one around actually came out of an equity audit. So our district did an equity audit, with a group who came in and sort of helped us look at, like, what's happening in the classrooms, what's happening with discipline across the board.

And, there were from the findings of the equity audit, some action items were created. And one of the major action items was this need for assessment that was really gonna give us a picture of where students were were on standards. And that was a piece where we would be able to once we were able to sort of, like which is what we're doing now, kinda get this baseline. What Ron was getting at that first assessment, the the really hard one, to get to the second assessment, that's, like, where we're at right now. But the reason why this journey started in the first place was really in the name of, like, we can anecdotally see that our students are not performing the same.

There there is disproportionality in the way that our students are learning and being able to demonstrate their learning. And that assessment of, like, where are we so that we can see where we need to go, that was the big action item that happened out of that equity audit. So for for me, for us, for our district, this assessment process is really tied deeply to making sure that we're serving all of our students. And, specifically, I work within the curriculum and instruction department. So it's when specifically, when we're talking about classroom learning, when we're talking about standards, when we're talking about grade level rigor within the classroom and making sure that we're raising all of our students up, that was where I think assessment sort of came in.

So I I feel I don't wanna, like, you know, get, like, too sort of theoretical about where the whole thing started, but that was really where this entire project came from. From. It was like we could see that there was inequities. We could see that there were ways that we could better serve our students and collecting baseline data, again, to be able to get to that second place, that third place where we're starting to really see growth. That was that that's why assessment matters a lot in our district, especially right now.

I love looking at assessment through the lens of equity and providing that opportunity for all students, right, to to gather that correct feedback or that initial test, right, that baseline to see where all students are and to raise all students to that level, right, utilizing those different resources throughout your district. So that is that's an amazing, way of kick starting off the need for a more assessment or or or the need for a more positive assessment or take on assessment, within your district. Ron, share with us a little bit about how at the school level or at the district level, assessment is viewed and and why it matters at at looking why it matters to look at assessment at these varying levels? Well, I think Kyra nailed it with, clarity of understanding for assessments and especially with state standards. State standards are what we what we live by. That's that's what we teach.

And there's they can be so deep, and and you can take one standard and look at it. And it's amazing because one standard can ask, twenty different things, of a student. So having a clear understanding of those standards. And so the reason that causes frustration and why assessment matters is because it's not that teachers were doing things poorly before. It's just they may not have been teaching to the true depth of every standard, and their assessments weren't assessing the true depth of every standard.

And so then it's really frustrating for a teacher who feels like they are doing some really good things, and and they are really pouring their heart out. And then they see, like, a state assessment standard at the end of the year that shows that they're failing in in all of these areas. And so it's a lot of conversation, like Kyra was mentioning, of talking and understanding each one of those standards. And then with backwards design, really having your assessments mirror what those standards are asking. So what really, what are all of those components, and do our assessments reflect that? One thing that's exciting from a classroom level is you begin to see that your work is paying off because you're identifying some things that maybe you haven't been teaching in the past because you just didn't understand that that assessment or that standard is really asking that piece.

And so now it opens your eyes to, okay. I can go I can go much deeper in this, and I I really understand how this is a building block that may have been missing from my my previous instruction, and this is really gonna help my students have a better understanding for for future standards. From a district perspective, the last two years, we've seen almost a mirror image if we pull up our mastery, pie graphs from MasteryConnect and then our mastery pie graphs from our state assessment scores. I mean, they look identical in, our EOCs. They look identical in our map.

That shows that our our teachers are really starting to get it when they're creating those assessments. And it's not a one year and done. Our first year was a lot of work on assessments. But immediately that next summer, my teachers were like, okay. We need another hundred and twenty hours this summer or thirty or forty hours this summer because we need to refine all of these again.

We found so many things that we just want to improve on. And the same thing happened, you know, in year three. And that just helps those pie graphs start refining and and focusing in to be exactly what's needed because we're we're dialing into what the the standards are asking. So from a district perspective, it's really exciting to see those pie graphs mirror each other because that shows that our work is is doing what it's designed to do. It's to help those students achieve mastery to the level of the standards, that not only the state expects, but that we expect because we want our students to be successful in all they do.

That's fantastic to hear about your journey and how assessment sounds like an iterative process, right, for for your district where you had, like, a a version one and your teachers were eager to create that better version two. And so thinking about the educators that might not be in in the classroom, day to day. Right? Like, you know, school based administrators or even district level staff. What are some of the things that they can do to help foster that positive assessment culture? Let's start with Kyra. I love this question, and I think a lot of it is demonstrating that you have an awareness and understanding of what is happening in the classroom.

So the things I think that have really made the biggest difference are having really clear guides. This is gonna sound, like, so simple, but this is, like, what I'm steeped in in my work. And it it's like the things that I've gotten the most, comments on from classroom teachers, which is, like, the guides for how I do this, like, what buttons to push. The logistics of it all that are really clear is, like, so valuable. They my the teachers that have gone through this process have really appreciated that that it they demonstrate that I have either been in the classrooms or taken teacher feedback directly into, like, how this works and what this looks like and the little tips and the tricks.

Along those same lines is having, like, student facing resources to provide for teachers. So for example, just like really basic stuff again, but, like, here's this I'll be like, here's this slide deck that you can make a copy of an edit that has some screenshots in it of what your students are gonna see. And, like, here's how they would take this assessment. And, again, it's not complicated, but it's the kind of thing that would take a teacher, you know, ten, fifteen, maybe time. It doesn't even matter how long.

It would take their time to create those student facing resources to help their kids get started. And, to be able to provide that for teachers is another thing I think that has made, helps to build that positive assessment culture. I also think our district has done a really good job more generally in just making sure that there is the technology is intimidating, like, no matter what. A new piece of technology, even as an existing piece of technology for a teacher who hasn't used it. And so and our district has been really good, I think, about making sure that there's support provided for teachers, as we're rolling this out.

Like, as we're going through this process, it wasn't just like a one and done PD day. It's like here, learn all this and then just remember it all magically after the school year starts. And it's a that and is a lot of work, but it has really, really paid off. And I can already see again, because we're really, like, at the beginning of this that providing a lot of support, having guides, having, that are nimble and flexible and updating as questions come in and trouble comes in and having our technology team on board to provide support and being available to teachers, has made a really, really big difference in moving us more towards that positive culture. Like, okay.

I can try this because I know that I'm gonna be supported, and I can already see as we continue through this school year and the next six weeks and the six weeks after. People are already getting more and more confident going through this process. And I think we're gonna have a lot less of the, like, anxiety around the the process, the buttons, the technology, and a lot more investment in just like, okay. I know how to do that part. Take a deep breath.

Like, what's this data telling me? What am I gonna do next in my classroom? And so that, I think, is something that I can all I can start to see already, and I can see I think that part of that, being able to see that is from providing lots and lots of support along the way that really demonstrates, like, what is this actually gonna look like in the classroom? Going to a classroom and watching someone give an assessment. What are the problems? What are the questions? What are the things that are coming up? And then providing resources to help support that for other teachers. That's fantastic. Especially for the onset, like, of this big initiative that your district is doing. Having the resources to support educators as well as, you know, learners and students, with the the how to is is super important and for them to feel supported, along the way.

Ron, you're a little bit farther in the journey. So what's your perspective on what district administrators or or school level administrators, what can they do to foster that positive assessment culture? I mean, they need to be a part of the conversation. So if you wanna have a a positive assessment culture, you need to have a strong collaborative culture, to where everybody plays a part in in student success. And, you know, when I was talking earlier about kind of our journey, if we hadn't started with a positive, professional learning community culture and and the vulnerabilities that come along with that, there's no way we could have made it to where we are today with with our assessment culture. And that goes with special education teachers being a part of the process, title teachers being a part of the process, OT, PT, you know, everybody, and especially your your building level administrators.

We've had a lot of conversations from a district level over the last five to ten years in administration that administration is no longer, you know, seventy percent managerial. It it is instructional leaders. There's a brand new set of expectations for a building principal, so they really should be part of those conversations and seeing how they can best support teachers in the classroom, with every level of instruction. And that can be challenging for new administrators, especially, as they come into this where they may be a high school person and now they're an elementary school principal, and they have to be, you know, joining these PLC conversations and and, having deep conversations about standards and assessments to where they really have had zero experience with that. So it is a sharp learning curve, but the best way to learn is to dive in and listen.

You know, listen as much as you can for, that first year of your your building level experience, but don't shy away from those conversations. Listen to what the teachers are saying, what they're seeing. And my philosophy has always been instruction is instruction. Whether you're teaching a, you know, high level math class in in high school or you're teaching kids to read in third grade, like, you see instructional standards and the criteria that's in it, but you can definitely have some good conversations on those instructional pieces that are gonna help students understand or or cycle back. So I think that they need to be a part of the conversation.

They need to be supporting their teachers, giving them time, to to plan, time to create these assessments, time to revise these assessments, so that teachers can run with it, and do good things for all their kids. That's a great perspective to have on on the foundation. Right? You needed that positive PLC culture before you could develop that positive assessment culture. And then as you said, like, the the the shift and the responsibilities of building level leadership is shifting more towards instructional leadership and being willing to listen and give time, right, are two amazing ways that that administrators can, foster that positive assessment culture. I'd like to turn our attention more future focused and thinking about initiatives that, that your districts are are are working towards, right, or goals that your districts are working towards.

So, Kyra, can you tell tell us or share a little bit about what's next for your district in regards to assessment and continuing to develop that positive assessment culture? Yes. I I think that I'm a lot of what Ron's sharing is sort of the dream. I think the biggest thing is getting through the first assessment cycle and our teachers now getting to sit down with the data right alongside this philosophy that all data is good deed, that this is just this is information for us. Something that Ron said that really struck a chord with me was this, like, dread tied to assessment being evaluative. And I I didn't realize, I think, coming into this that there was that was such a strong feeling for so many teachers.

I taught AP government for a really long time, and I never it never really occurred to me to, like, judge myself or my students by, like, the test scores. And coming into, I was like, oh, maybe that should have been, like, more, like, more important to me. I don't know why that just never really, like I think I had a really great leader. I worked for an incredible principal who never made me feel like that was the, you know, the end all be all of, like, how good I was doing in the classroom. So it kinda caught me off guard, like, how, tied up with, like, judgment and evaluation that I think some people feel with assessment.

So really, like, that idea of, like, data is data. Data is just information. It's not here to judge us. And having those data conversations is, I think, the future for us of what assessment could look like, going through the whole process. Like, so many times we just collect the information because it's like, well, I have to do this test for the state or whatever it is.

And there's not that moment to see the follow-up and then the growth and then the excitement that comes from that and then another round of assessment and then more growth and more learning and being able to be like, oh, now I can really target what I'm what I'm teaching and what my students are learning. And, oh, this idea of, like, more personalized learning eventually starts to become less intimidating because you have all of this really valuable rich information about where your students are on the standard. So for me, I think where I'm this might not be super future forward, but, like, I think that so many times assessment ends with the assessment and going through the process of looking at the data, creating actionable next steps of what to do, what are we gonna do next, and then what's that gonna look like for our students and the confidence that that builds, like, in everybody along the way, I think, is really the dream for this assessment process in our district. And I just wanna say this is a little bit going back to the last question, but both I'm talking about, like, a fairly large, like, district's, assessment culture. But I also just wanna say for, like, anybody out there who's for who that feels very intimidating, because I think if I even heard myself talking about this a year ago, I would have been like, oh my gosh.

Like, we're not there at all. What are you talking about? That's crazy. It really we're I'm doing this I'm working on this bigger project, but I also meet with just, like, individual teachers or teams of teachers, and I'm like, okay. Let's just pick one standard. Literally just one that you may be gonna teach, like, in a week from now.

And, like, I'm just gonna help you put five question. We'll come up with five questions, like, however, whatever kinds of questions. And then we'll just give it to your students as, like, an exit ticket, and then we'll just see what happens. And then when you have the data, just, like, call me, and we're gonna see. Like, let's just look at it.

And so I think that that is also it's the same thing. It's just a smaller scale and so just as valuable in building a more positive assessment culture. Because then you're talking about things like formative assessment and an exit ticket and one single standard. And then it starts to click like, oh, it's that same thing. It's just a little bit bigger scale.

Now I'm looking at two standards or three standards. Now maybe the assessment end. So I just wanna say that, like, I don't think it's necessarily has there's a way to take this big, big initiative and really just break it down into, like, really small pieces that's just as valuable, I think. Absolutely. And I love that you're giving educators access, one, to an expert in yourself as well as helping them create those, their their own competency based experiences.

Right? Them becoming more competent in designing the assessment, delivering the assessment, and then analyzing the assessment afterwards and seeing it through to the cycle. Right? What do we want our students to know? How do we know they know it? What do we do when they don't? And what do we do when they do? Right? Those are important questions for for the classroom educator to answer. Ron, again, your district is a little bit farther along in in your your development of a positive assessment culture. Talk to us a little bit about what's next for your district. Well, I mean, Kyra is absolutely right.

It seems very intimidating. I remember that very well when we just started, and it's only been maybe four years ago that that we started our process with really utilizing a tool like this for data. But it seems like a cliff. And it definitely takes that first bit of success to really drive it home for teachers. We were just very fortunate that and I I think any district that's gonna take on this challenge, you really need to take the time to, to set it up, set a strong foundation with your with your teams first, and really talk about the why, really have those details in place, take time to really support them holistically throughout that entire first year.

But But when we saw double digit percentage point growth, in our state assessments after year one, I think many of us knew that this was going to have a positive impact. But I think the teachers seeing that, you know, and then there was still that belief of this is just a one off. We were just lucky. But then to see double digit percentage point growth again in year two and continued growth to now where we were bottom tiers of our county, and now this year, we're top of the county in several areas. That's a huge impact for teachers.

Success breeds success. And so they started to believe it after year one. Like, okay. Maybe I didn't wanna do this, but I I am seeing some benefits. And and more importantly, my kids are seeing benefits.

After year two, it was like, okay. I this I'm on board. How can I how can I best use this to see my kids continue to grow? And and now we're just on the train moving moving fast forward of this is where we wanna be. So when we look at the future and next steps, our teachers now have the confidence of we're writing our ELA curriculum rather than buying our ELA curriculum this year. Right? Like, they they now say that we are strong enough with our assessment culture that we can do some backwards design, and we feel that we've got enough ownership of our curriculum that we can write it.

And we wanna write it because we wanna have those true, pieces of growth, and take ownership of that to see our kids succeed. So that's exciting, and I think that that's a logical next step for us in many areas as our teachers grow in in that confidence. And then really looking at the future, I think AI analysis and and progress monitoring, progress learning, based on this data is is gonna be huge. So all of the things that that MasteryConnect gives us with immediate data analysis, visual graphical representation, to have AI to then say, okay. And here's some next steps.

Here's your groupings. Here's how you can do that. It doesn't take the the power out of the teachers of making those decisions and driving instruction. But, again, it gives teachers more time. It gives them more tools.

It gives them more resources. So instead of a lot of this work that that they've been doing, for example, spreadsheets earlier with assessments, now they can use that time again to drive that instruction and actually work with kids one on one, work with small groups. So I see that as a huge piece of of, assessment future would be the use of know, artificial intelligence analysis, next steps, and just giving teachers more time, to do what they do best. That's, like, a fantastic perspective in in that entire journey of success breeds success. Right? The teachers who might not have been on board saw the results and could live vicariously, right, through educators who had that success, and then that vicarious experience leads to their own mastery experience.

Right? Until you have this idea or this sense of collective efficacy throughout an entire school or throughout an entire district, that can lead to much more, complex and innovative tasks, right, like designing your own curriculum, right, like, thinking about utilizing AI tools to, to further the next steps, what happens after assessment, or talk to me about these results and analyze these results for me. This is this is great. This has been a great conversation, and thank you so much for sharing, your your perspectives on positive assessment culture, where your districts are in developing that, positive assessment culture and what's next for your districts. And, with that, we're gonna open up the q and a. And so, I'm gonna turn things over to Steven real quickly, to help talk through the q and a window.

Yes. Thanks, Marcus. Yeah. So we are at the live q and a portion of the presentation. If you haven't already, I'm gonna highlight it at the bottom of your screen so you can find it, but it's the ask question icon there at the bottom.

It should be highlighted. It's the red box with the, question mark and the two chat bubbles. And also, we just wanna give another reminder to stay on to the very end to participate in the post event survey that'll launch on your screen. And also that there is a a an info graph infographic related to today's event, via the related content icon. But right now, as as we said, we are at the live q and a, and I'm highlighting it right now for everyone else who hasn't submitted a question to submit.

So alright. Over to you, Marcus. Alright. Thanks, Steven. So our first question coming in is asking, does educational technology play a role in positive assessment culture? And if so, how? And, Ron, you've answered this a little bit.

Could you expound a little bit more about how, how educational technology plays a role in positive assessment culture? Yeah. I think you can have a positive assessment culture even before these tech tools, with the same types of conversations, the same use of data, to drive instructional, decisions forward. But the technology makes a big difference in, again, allowing your teachers more time, and a it it takes the teacher out of of some of the analysis as well with, the technology saying, here's a non opinionated view of exactly where all kids are. You know, it's not based on saying that you're a better teacher than this person. This is just based on raw data.

So I think Kyra alluded to it earlier of just, having the data that is this is good data. This is data, and that it is what it is. Now how can we have conversations around that, and how can we use that? So I see technology as playing a role in giving teachers more time, giving them more tools in their tool belt as far as, different perspectives of the data, different analysis points of the data to be able to take that and say, alright. Now I know how to group my kids, and I know how to work on these specific skills because this is the exact part of the standard that they're missing. That's going to make them, again, work smarter and not harder to see kids succeed.

I love that idea of working, working smarter, not harder. Right? And allowing the technology to do the task that technology can do really well at scale and automated. Right? While the teachers can do kind of the art of side of teaching, where they're able to really focus on on on students and instruction. Kyra, anything to contribute to this, question? Yeah. In my role, especially as the coordinator of instructional technology, I think that I have very, have a lot of experience with the ways in which technology can and cannot play a role in positive assessment culture.

I think that, ease of use is important. I think that, the way that the just general, like, documentation, like, do this, then do this is a really important piece of, like, making sure that whatever technology you're using is part of building a positive assessment culture and not, you know, breaking down the a culture that you've already built. You know? Because, again, I totally agree. Like, that comes before the the technology and despite the technology. But I do think that the it's the automation, the, like, immediate results, the immediate analysis when you're getting into item analysis, that I think is really powerful in okay.

We've done all this work in building assessment. We've done all this work in identifying our most important standards. We've done all this work in choosing and curating curriculum, and then to be able to see the results of that right away and be able to make changes immediately, I think is really one of the the biggest values in that the technology can bring to assessment and assessment culture. You know, you think of the alternative, like, a bunch of sticky notes and poster paper. I love a sticky note.

Don't get me wrong, but it just is so time consuming. And we all know that that's not something that, time is not something that any of us have an abundance of these days. Awesome. Yes. That that time saving aspect is huge for educators when we can save them time to focus on other tasks.

Right? It leads to them just feeling better, right, about the work that they do, including assessment. We have a question, that's come in in regards to standards based grading. We know that, alphanumeric grades don't tell the full story of a student's level of mastery and, negatively impact the learning environment potentially. And so how can parents push for standard space grading? And, it's one of the last great this this audience member feels that this is one of the last great hurdles to ever overcome in this area. So what are your thoughts on standards based grading? Do you mind if I jump in on this one? Go for it, Kyra.

This is something that I actually when, I first learned about Master Connect, this is one of the things that I was like, this is what the fact that there are not alpha grades a, b, c, d, f attached to how students perform, how they show their mastery on these standards, I think, is one of the most valuable things about the entire system. And that because I get that question a lot. Like, okay. But where what about the grade? Like, what's I'm I'm in a high school district, so grades are really big. They're a huge part of the culture of our schools, our students, our community members, our family members.

And there's so much baggage attached to those grades in a variety of ways for all students, whether it's, you know, the a that's the motivator or the f that's the, you know, I can't I'm never gonna be able to do it. Why even try? And so the fact that when you pull the assessment out of a place where there is immediately a grade attached to it is so, so valuable and I think so, so powerful and makes assessment so much easier to talk about for everybody, students and teachers as far as like, okay. You know, you're we use different words in our, MasteryConnect, environment. But, like, okay. I'm I'm almost proficient.

Like, I'm practicing. I need a little bit more practice in the standard rather than, well, I got an f. So that's that. And and we on small scales, I've seen that happen where students will shift from being like, oh, I got a c or whatever to going to their teacher and saying, I need more practice in standard twelve point one point five. And you're like, what? Like, that's incredible as a teacher to be like, that is amazing question.

I have resources for you. Like, here's a video. Here's a, you know, the tech whatever it is, to shift that conversation towards really towards learning. I just don't think that could be underestimated, and I think that taking grades out of the that piece of the conversation is so, so important. And I actually feel like there's sometimes some pushback on that of, like, oh, now I have this grade book, and I have this whole other thing that I have to look at.

I mean, like, let's just let's let's pause and, like, look at the value of that. And, also, I don't wanna get too deep into the weeds on this, but I also think there's a piece of that as far as this, like, AI cheating culture, like this cheating conversation that we're having all the time these days. I think there's an element of pulling letter grades out of it and seeing what impact that has on the motive motivations for cheating, for academic dishonesty, and how much of that is fueled by having to get a certain grade rather than just seeing the red, yellow, green, and then learning that goes the growth that goes along the way. That's all. I love that.

I love that perspective. No. It's it's, like, instead of focusing on the grade, right, on the a, b, or the ninety or one hundred percent we're focused on, show me you know this standard. Right? Show me you you can do this task or you have this content knowledge. Ron, what are your perspectives on standard space grading and shifting that way? No.

I think she's absolutely right, and and I think it happens organically. So we talked about, the first step in this journey is just teachers having a greater understanding of their standards, and then you use a tool like Mastery Connect where everything is broken down by standards, then you start to see those PLC conversations just occur around standards. Teachers saying, well, you know, when we were looking at r l four point two and you just they start referencing individual standards in their conversations, which you may not have heard, as much before because they are really looking at it from a standards based perspective on student mastery. But then those those conversations organically start bleeding into your parent teacher conferences. So now you're utilizing standard mastery reports with your parents, and conversations are you know, they're really succeeding with r l four point three, r l four point four.

But you can see here on this one that this is where they're really struggling, and here's the work that we're doing to help them have more mastery in the standard. So the conversations really start to go away from, well, he's a c student because he's still struggling to, to read and comprehend to more of, let's get down to some details with parents and really show them where their kid is struggling based on the standard. So I think that, you eventually have teachers saying, why are we not already doing mastery or, standards based grading? Because that's what we're doing. We're we're we're basically doing it already. And parents will start to say, I already know kind of where my kid is based on these standards.

It makes more sense to just tell me the standards they're doing well and the standards they're not. I think the caveat to that is and I sat on the state council for for ACT, and and we really talked a lot about colleges. Is it it can be a big state issue, rather than a local issue on that drive for GPA, that drive for advanced courses. You know, my son is a sophomore. He's looking, you know, forward to college, and we've been having those conversations.

And it's already of what classes you need to take to get into this school that that you wanna get into for medical school. I think that there has to be a larger conversation above even just local k twelve institutions to really say what is mastery, what is student achievement, what is high performing students, that goes beyond academics as well? And how can we, how can we reflect that in in our communications to parents both at the k twelve level and at the collegiate level? Thank you for that response. And this next question kind of piggybacks off of some of of that of what you just said, Ron. More and more universities and colleges are reinstating requirements for the ACT or SAT scores for admissions. How does this impact a positive assessment culture when there's such high stakes for these examinations? Ron, do you wanna start out with this one? Sure.

Yeah. And and there was a a few years right around just before COVID and then kind of through COVID to where a lot of colleges were moving away from those. They were doing test optional, and you see that coming back. But I think it's important to remember, that that's still just one piece of the puzzle. It's just one part of of data that, these colleges look at.

So it's important to communicate to students that just like we assess you all the time in school and just like we talk about these state assessments all the way through high school, these ACT and SATs is just another way for us to gather information on where you are on your learning journey. And then that along with essays that you may write or all of your extracurricular activities that you're going to show these colleges, they're gonna look at you as a whole package to see where you are. But I think the ACT SAT is not a bad thing. I think that it does provide some additional data. But it's important for for everyone, parents and students alike, to understand that it's just one it's just one part.

It's just one piece. It's not the full story. A kid is more than a number, and, it it it it does show them what a student has the abilities for in in certain areas, but they're gonna be looking at a lot of other things as well. That's great to frame it as just one piece of a much greater puzzle, right, that makes up your your college application. Kyra, any thoughts on on the turn back to to including ACT and SAT scores for college admissions.

I just think that, overall, like, the the bigger point too of, I think, the conversation today of building a a more positive assessment culture, I think that that applies to students as well and kinda along the same lines as what Ron was saying. I think that this idea of, you know, test anxiety is very real and but I think that the more that we, at all levels of schooling, make assessment for learning part of the learning process and normalize it is, like, we assess where we're at. We look at our own learning. We look at each other's learning. Our teachers look at our learning, and then we make a plan to move forward and learn more and better and more efficiently and more specifically what you need.

All of those things, I think, help will will eventually help students take all kinds of assessments and see them in a different perspective. I love that idea of changing a student's perspective on these these bigger assessments. Right? And, again, that that exposure to just, changing their mindsets around. Right? This is just to help us know where you are. Right? And it's not an end all, be all is is a fantastic perspective to have and, and a fantastic way to, end our conversation today.

So thank you to our panelists, Kyra and Ron, for giving us, a glimpse into what's happening in their journeys at their respective districts and what in developing a a positive assessment culture. And thank you to everyone, who has, come today, to listen to our amazing panelists. And I think I'm gonna turn things over to Steven, to wrap things up with our, with our survey, for today's session. Yes. Thank you, Marcus.

Yes. So we are at the end of the live q and a. And if we didn't get to your questions today, and I think I can see one or more, it's not a problem. We at DA, we will be sharing them, with our partners at Instructure so they can be asked at some point in the future. And, actually, I have a few slides that I'll be going through in just a moment.

If during that time, any questions do come to mind, again, put them in the, ask question box there, and I'll make sure that they're sent over. And, also, one last, one last mention to stay on until the very end, to participate in the post event survey. That said, I am going to push it out so you can find it, easily on your screen. So it should be there at the center of your screen now. So we'd love to hear from you.

But first off, before I go through those closing slides, I just want to, thank Marcus for for leading the conversation and, of course, to, Kyra and Ron for taking the time out of their busy, hectic schedules at their districts as I know we we all have them. But so thank you very much. And I'd also like to, thank our audience, all of you out there, for for participating in this presentation today. For those of you who enjoyed our presentation, we have more webinars like this one that are, provided by us here at district administration. Also, if you would like to watch, this presentation again or for those of you and I love the clapping emojis.

Thank you for sending them our way. We love them. If if you would like to watch this presentation again or for those of you, you know, who we believe what what you heard today will be helpful to your colleagues, and I'm sure that is very much the case, you'll be pleased to know that our team at DA, we will be sending you an email later tomorrow. And in that email, it will include a link to the slides as well as the on demand recording. So look for that in your inboxes.

So with that, on behalf of DA, this is Steven Blackburn. Thanks, everyone. Have a great rest of your day. And, of course, again, thank you to Instructure. This is great.