{"id":21938,"date":"2024-03-19T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-03-19T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nwea.org\/blog\/?p=21938"},"modified":"2024-07-16T08:51:00","modified_gmt":"2024-07-16T15:51:00","slug":"educator-assessment-literacy-can-be-strengthened-by-professional-development","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nwea.org\/blog\/2024\/educator-assessment-literacy-can-be-strengthened-by-professional-development\/","title":{"rendered":"Educator assessment literacy can be strengthened by professional development\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"
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True or false? Your teacher development program adequately covered assessment literacy. This question was posed by Jacob Bruno, executive vice president of Learning and Improvement Services at NWEA, on a recent episode of The Continuing Educator<\/em><\/a> podcast, where he met with Moon McCarley, principal and district testing coordinator on the Alaskan Peninsula, and Ashley Cruz, NWEA state professional learning consultant, currently based in Texas. These two educators in completely different parts of North America both gave their synchronous answer: \u201cFalse!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Assessment literacy includes everything from classroom skills, like preparing students for test day<\/a> and facilitating goal-setting conversations with students<\/a>, to more data-science skill sets, like interpreting test results<\/a> and understanding areas of need. Regardless of what assessment is administered within a district, assessment literacy is a necessary component of teacher preparation and ongoing professional development\u2014yet this takes time, and as Ashley says in the episode, \u201cTeachers\u2019 time is never on their side.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Broadening teacher reach, from Texas to Alaska<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Both Moon and Ashley knew early that they wanted to be teachers. Neither, however, could have pictured just how varied their path in education would be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moon began as a classroom teacher. She was quickly recognized as a leader and recruited to be an instructional coach. That led to the administrative side of things, and what began as a short stint in Alaska led to a full-time life there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ashley, recent president of the Texas Council for Teachers of Mathematics, was a math teacher who quickly saw the need for strong math curriculum. She served as a curriculum writer, instructional coach, and district-level MAP\u00ae Growth\u2122<\/a> trainer before joining the NWEA state professional learning team. \u201cI\u2019ve always wanted to make a bigger impact,\u201d Ashley says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The need for assessment literacy<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Educators of all areas\u2014classroom teachers, curriculum writers, instructional coaches, administrators, and those working on broader policy and advocacy\u2014know that assessment is a vital part of the educational landscape<\/a>, especially at the macro level of district and state solutions. But how do we secure teacher buy-in and offer educators support as they decipher assessment data and determine what\u2019s next?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Assessments like MAP Growth offer high-level, detailed data on the progress of student growth over time. Moon and Ashley speak realistically, pointing out that any assessment is often state mandated and takes away, however briefly, from instructional time. Because of this shared reality, all educators deserve literacy to turn an assessment\u2019s results into actionable instructional shifts<\/a>. Moon says, \u201cBeing able to build teacher understanding of why we\u2019re assessing and how to use the data\u2014from educators to students to parents\u2014makes that time spent feel so much more worthwhile.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ashley and Moon share a passion for meeting what they identify as a pervasive need for assessment literacy across the country. Both encountered a lack of training in their teacher prep programs as well as ongoing difficulties with quality professional development. Ashley shared that throughout her travels, \u201cWe saw continually that this element of developing the data, understanding the assessment, understanding of pre-service educators is left wanting almost universally.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The NWEA certified facilitator program<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

NWEA has partnered with the Alaska Department of Education and Early Development (DEED) to offer ongoing, on-demand assessment literacy training<\/a> to \u201cbroaden educators\u2019 individual and collective understanding of the purpose and use of a range of assessment measures.\u201d This is the kind of teacher professional development lacking in prep programs: hands-on, just-in-time learning with real data and decision-making stakes. Ashley puts it simply: these trainings are to get educators on the same page with the question,  \u201cAre we effectively gathering evidence of student learning to inform decisions?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moon went through the certified facilitator program<\/a> to increase her impact by bringing assessment literacy strategies to districts across Alaska. These \u201ctrain the trainer\u201d in-person and virtual workshops help educators:<\/p>\n\n\n\n