Effective Practices: Inclusive Student Assessment
Gleaning from our experience working with small schools and organizations for more than six years as a group and decades as individuals, we have created a series of documents on Effective Practices that we are excited to offer to our clients.
Each document is focused on a key theme or area that clients often have questions about or need support to improve. Our intention with the Effective Practice documents is to offer maps for our clients and share resources that can serve a wide range of small schools and types of organizations. We intend for these resources to support unique inquiries and journeys while addressing common themes, as communities widen to become more inclusive, equitable, diverse, and just.
Today, we warmly share the next in our Effective Practices series: Inclusive Student Assessment. This document focuses on strategies, questions, and important aspects to consider when assessing and supporting students.
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There are many ways to assess a student because, in essence, we are assessing students all the time. It is the responsibility of the school to constantly attune to each of its students in order to determine whether they are best supported to learn within the school and the classroom environments it offers. Student assessments range from formal, structured processes to constant informal touchpoints within the classroom. This document offers suggestions for approaching the assessment process at all points of this range to support students from a broad spectrum of backgrounds. Using the lens of inclusive assessment, we provide guiding questions and practical tools to help teachers meet students where they are, scaffold learning, and recognize and communicate the school’s limits. We also discuss how to build collaborative partnerships with parents and caregivers, based on a shared framework and trust.
Effective practices to consider
When assessing, make sure you’re connected to the “why” of the process. Why do we assess? Whom does it serve? For example, some reasons to assess are to help provide practical tools to meet students where they are, to scaffold learning, and to recognize and communicate limits.
Start with a high-level perspective. Consider:
The school’s mission, vision, values, and internal culture
The physical space of the classroom
How the classroom is set up; is it spacious or crowded?
How are the classroom walls decorated?
The classroom’s relationship to other spaces within the school/institution
Self-Assessment for Teachers
What is your relationship to your students?
How does who you are determine whom you assess, how you assess, whom and what you notice, and how students are responding to you? What biases might you have?
What can you do to increase your capacity for observing your students? Knowing that student behavior changes when observed, are you aware of how you are influencing classroom dynamics and student behavior when observing?
Considerations within the assessment process
What are you specifically wanting to assess? (Ex. skill development, knowledge of specific facts, proficiency with a language, etc)
Are there multiple ways to assess students that allow them to show what they know? (Ex. In addition to conventional reading and writing prompts, how can students demonstrate what they know artistically, musically, through spoken word, storytelling and poetry, movement, games, etc?)
Consider offering differentiated forms of assessment so that students can show their knowledge in ways that speak to their strengths. You can find many examples of differentiated assessments by looking up Universal Design for Learning.
How can students reflect on what they have learned, build on it, create a cue, sign, or symbol for it, or say it another way?
Tools and rubrics, like Bloom’s Taxonomy, can help identify the specific actions to implement to assess students’ learning.
Have a plan to follow up on assessments
Collaborate with support networks within the school. Is there a school team or coordinator for educational support?
Have a clear understanding of the ways you and the school can and cannot meet the needs of the student.
Working with parents and caregivers
Build collaborative partnerships with parents and caregivers that are based on a shared framework and mutual trust.
One way is to start the first meeting with adults by asking, “What is your hope for your child?”
Be prepared to communicate the school’s abilities and limits for supporting students in order to chart a path forward together.
The full document (available only to current clients) includes more effective practices and a robust list of accompanying resources. If you’re a current client and don’t have access to this document, please write to us at connect@almapartners.net for a copy. We also offer 1-hour consulting sessions to go deeper on the content of this document. If you’re not a client yet, book an introductory call with us to learn more!
