FHS Has the Opportunity to Be A Pilot School

Do you want to learn more about performance based assessment? Visit the ASCD site to read articles and hear from experts and students.

Fairview High School has the opportunity to participate in an exciting pilot plan that is being funded by the ODE. This plan will also tie into our Mosaic Project objectives by helping to address the performance and learning of all students in our building. Anne Dance, Kathy Ingersoll, Jenny Parente, Michelle Kocar and I had a chance to attend an informational meeting at the ODE in September. The following is a summary of what we learned at this meeting.

The ODE Plan
To select pilot schools across the state who will help to develop common assessments to be used for 11/12 graders in English, Science and Math. These assessments will be a combination of formative (portfolios, hands- projects) and summative (end of unit ). The purpose is to create assessments that actually measure the kinds of skills we want students to have upon graduation rather than assessments that are based on memorization – but no application. The goal is to move away from OGT style testing. Additionally, the ODE is looking at streamlining indicators by grade level to allow teachers to cover a smaller amount of information at a greater depth. All of this is coming out of the studies being done by Stanford University and Linda Darling Hammond through their Envision Schools model and the feedback that businesses and colleges have provided to the state board of education.(See below)

Ohio State School Board Initiative
To see more on this initiative, visit their website

• Ohio School Board focus on assessment – looking at the difference between memorization and mastery and performance ability
• Education in the global economy committee – looking at connections between the business community and our education system – predicting 21st century skill set- created a top 10 list
1. Critical thinking and problem solving – applied knowledge
2. Mastery of rigorous academic content – literacy and content
3. Innovative and creative thinking – entrepreneur skills
4. Communication skills – oral and written
5. Team learning and interpersonal skills
6. Alignment w/ education and economic development
7. Personal responsibility and work ethic – life long learning and financial literacy
8. Global awareness – culture and language – history economics and geography
9. Communication bridge pre k-13
10. Teacher education and preparation – prof development and support to provide skills for helping with mastery and content development

• The end result was addressing how the current assessment system needed to be changed to meet these 10 objectives

Susan Zelman- State Superintendent
She outlined the ideas behind this pilot program which was created in response to the School Board's initiative.

• Moral responsibility to offer students multiple ways to share what they know
• Our standards need to be clearer, higher and fewer and benchmarked against international best practices
• We are piloting this program with the potential for more investment by the Gates Foundation in Ohio
• International systems do a better job of connecting the state assessment with what actually goes on in the classroom – and involve teachers in creating multiple measures of student performance – and the scoring of these assessments – building on the ability of teachers to improve assessment and learning in the classroom – making students who are college and workforce ready
o SHOULD OHIO PHASE OUT OGT
o SHOULD WE MOVE TOWARD SUBJECT TESTS
o SHOULD WE EMBED PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENT
o SHOULD WE HAVA A PROJECT BASED COMPONENT
o SHOULD WE ELIMINATE THE TECH DIVIDE
o CAN WE DEVELOP PROJECT BASED LEARNING
o CAN WE USE TECH TO DEVELOP ASSESSMENT
o CAN WE DEVELOP PORTFOLIOS THAT WILL TRACK WITH STUDENTS
• State evaluating embed performance assessment in 11 and 12 grade in math, science and English
• How do achieve a balance between teacher based assessment and state assessment

Technology Survey

I am working with Kevin to create a technology plan for our building for this year as well as into the future. I need your input to help me with this. Please take a minute to fill out this survey - you can do it right from this site or you can use the link I have emailed to you. Please fill in your name so that I can follow up with you on the results. Thanks again for all of your support.

By the way, I created this survey using the new FORMS tool in GOOGLE DOCS. You can create your own surveys or test reviews using this tool - and the results will be tabulated for you and presented in a graphic format - as well as being saved on an excel spreadsheet.