Assessment Cycle

Collect evidence-evidence is needed to understand what students may already know, plan for learning, set learning goals and evaluate student progress-decide on what will be the evidence-decide how the evidence will be collected

Evaluate-evaluate students to note progress towards, or proficiency with learning objectives and decide on adjustments to unit plans-decide what will be evaluated and how it will be done

Feedback-informs the learner of their progress, successes and areas for improvement

Record data-keep data to track learner progress and accomplishment -decide on which data to record and how to record it

Communicate-report to parents and stake holders on learner progress

The first part of the cycle involves collecting data about the individual or group that you are assessing. Data collection could be performed in a variety of ways for example, observation or a written task. One way to collect data could be to complete a pre-assessment task such as an anticipation guide, which, can inform the planning, and teaching of the unit. The second component is to evaluate the evidence of student learning. The evaluation process should be completed collectively by teachers who can decide what quality evidence is and what the success criteria are, using standards. The third stage of the assessment cycle is giving targeted feedback to the student based on standards not grades or marks. This is assessment for learning as opposed to assessment as or of learning. The fourth component of the assessment cycle is to record the data from the evaluation of each student. Lastly, the grade determined by the teacher needs to be communicated to the student. The grade should be based on professional judgment not an average.

This assessment cycle supports the planning and learning cycle. 

1) Collect Evidence of Intended Learning 

2) Evaluate Evidence of Student Learning

3) Provide Feedback to the Student 

4) Record of Learning

5) Reporting to parents and students

Throughout the assessment cycle it is important to remain focused on progress toward the intended learning target. Collecting evidence begins the cycle and may happen through a variety of means such as observation, written submission, etc. The evaluative phase requires clear criteria for the teacher to evaluate and should be moderated amongst team members. Providing feedback is arguably the most important phase of the cycle as it has it's own process or loop that may require reassessment until mastery is achieved. Recording the evaluation is important to keep a record of progress in order to determine trends toward a cumulative evaluation of mastery. Finally the communication phase reports results so that student, parent and teacher all have a clear understanding of where the student stands with regard to their progress toward a learning target.

what does quality assessment look like? What evidence do we need to know if learning is happening?
What opportunities do students have to learn and act on their feedback?
what data do we have to know if learning is happening and the areas that need improvement?
How can we share the data with students and parents to build learning relationships?

HOW ASSESSMENT FITS INTO THE CURRICULUM

1. What do we intend learners to learn? (Our goals and objectives)
2. How will we know whether they have learned?
3. How will they learn strategies?
(see below - Our job as teachers)

In order to answer the above questions regarding student learning, the teacher must carry out the following tasks:

1. Collect evidence of students' work.
2. Evaluate the collected work - according to set criteria preferably.  (Allows us to evaluate at what stage the student is in his/her learning)
3. Provide feedback on the work to the individual student. (Gives the student an idea at what stage his learning is and what he needs to do to further his learning)
4. Record the data from the evaluation of work from each student. (This allows the teacher a reference point for each student and overview of his learning)
5. Communicate the feedback to student - reporting back to him/her. There are numerous forms of this. (See 3)

OUR JOB AS TEACHERS IS TO ANSWER:
What do we expect students to learn?
How will we know they are learning?
How will we respond when they don't learn?
How will we respond if they already know or reach mastery before we expect them to?

STUDENTS NEED TO ANSWER
Where am I now?
Where do need to be?
How can I close the gap?

Assessment is needed to answer the questions above.

Assessment is the professional judgement of the facilitator of work provided by the student that allows for modification of future instruction and allowing/promoting the learner to self-adjust his/her learning.

Assessment is the progress towards the intended learning and feedback on 'completed' learning, therefore each stage above is needed in order for progress to be made.

Start with what we intend students to learn, understand and know - standards, objectives etc.
Collect evidence of student learning or current knowledge/skills through pre-assessment strategies.
Develop strategies - how will students learn?
Evaluate different strategies for learning. These should be designed to directly target the outcomes.
Provide feedback for the learner- ongoing and continuous......the most important part! Central to growth and progress, enabling for student - this is where teachers get to be the facilitator - the best part of teaching! 
Assess - formative, ongoing and summative
Record - report out.

Collect evidence of learning:
Should be tangible and related directly to the identified learning outcomes. Evidence enables clear identification of what the student has done that is being evaluated. In order to give feedback to the learner it needs to be identified clearly as an action that they did, so that they understand what the evaluation has been based on when they receive their feedback.

Evaluate the evidence:
Matching directly to the identified criteria for success (of a rubric or clearly expressed expectations).
Possibly not done by the teacher, but at least moderated by others who are evaluating their own learners against the same identified criteria. This ensures the assessment is 'fair' and enables the next stage of giving feedback and allowing the student to understand the outcome of the assessment.

Give feedback to the learner:
The whole point, right?! Enable the learner to understand the extent to which they met the identified criteria for success...this time! If the goal is to know the size of the 'gap' between where they are and where they want to be then this is where that happens. Feedback should be directly matched to the learning outcomes and be framed in a way that the learners are able to see the next step to improve their learning.
I like the term feed-forward, although I don't use it enough!   

Record the outcome:
Keeping a record allows teachers and learners to see the progress that is being made.
This may be a comment by the teacher or by the learners themselves. Teachers and learners should both be able to go back to previous logs of this record, as the learning continues, in order to gauge progress and set targets. 
This might also overlap with communicating if the record is shared e.g. conversations visible on Veracross.
In my current school summative assessment levels are recorded visibly online so students and parents can see them.
This is also possible for on-going or formative tasks in the form of the comment function outlined above. After students receive their feedback, I ask them to add their own comment to Veracross which allows a permanent record of their progress 'snapshots' in their own words. It helps them to focus on the evidence, rather than their emotional response to the assessment.

Communicate the outcome:
Although the learner has already received their feedback, this may be in a way that is still just between the student and teacher. Communicating this to parents/other teachers/counsellors allows all stakeholders to know the outcome of the assessment, and from this, gain an understanding of the 'gap' that may or may not still exist in terms of the criteria for success.
This is more than an autopsy style 'final report card grade'. The communication happens at the time of the assessment. Alerts can identify concerns during the process.
Continuous communication allows the assessment cycle to continue into the next task/assessment.

The role of teachers is to facilitate learning. Assessment of learning is a key aspect of this role as unless we check for understanding and deep learning, we will not be able to evaluate our own success in carrying out our role. 

Assessment follows a cycle which can be broken up into 5 stages:

Collection of assessment data 

Evaluation of the data against criteria/ rubrics, benchmarks

Feedback for the students (needs to be specific, timely and actionable)  Feedback must also be based on professional judgment  

Recording of the student's progress 

Communication to the learner. 

Assessment is to *cause learning* and to work alongside learners to understand where they are currently, where they want to be and how to close the cap between the two.

The assessment cycle comprises 5 stages;collect evidence of assessment, evaluate the evidence in terms of the learning, give feedback to the learner, record outcome and communicate this (this can include reporting)

Assessment is all the materials and procedures used to complete this cycle.
Fundamentally it is a feedback process, dependent on professional judgment used to modify instruction and promote self-adjustment by the learner.