Supporting K-8 Teachers’ Capacity to Develop Quality Formative Science Assessments

ABSTRACT

During a two-year span, a cohort of K-8 science teachers undertook the task of creating formative assessments aligned with the Next-Generation Science Standards for their individual classrooms. Practice-based professional development was utilized to support teachers in a cyclical manner as they cooperatively developed, administered, and reflected on a series of assessments they designed across two study phases. In order to measure developmental progression of the formative assessments across the study’s two phases, project leadership designed an assessment quality rating instrument targeting four components of a given formative assessment: (a) learning goal(s), (b) task/prompt, (c) success criteria, and (d) next instructional steps. Using this criterion-based instrument, 123 assessments were subjected to consensus scoring using a 0–3 rating for each component (e.g. learning goals). Results indicated teachers developed higher quality formative assessments during the project’s second phase. More specifically, they developed learning goals and success criteria that were identified as being multi-dimensional, meaning the assessment component was designed to assess more than content. Implications for practitioners and researchers are discussed, specifically related to the supports needed for teachers learning to progressively design and implement full spectrum, science-based, formative assessments. Finally, suggestions for future research are discussed given the potential value of using assessment design to introduce a cycle of teacher-driven self-reflection.

KEYWORDS:

• Formative assessments
• in-service teachers
• next generation science standards
• practice-based professional development

Acknowledgments

We would like to acknowledge the efforts of all 35 teachers contributed their assessments throughout the project. Additionally, we would like to thank Diane Johnson and Patti Works (from the Partnership Institute for Math and Science Education Reform—PIMSER) for contributing their knowledge and expertise to the leadership team. Finally, Rae McEntyre’s efforts as a consultant from the Kentucky Department of Education were of value to the leadership team.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

¹ All 35 teachers participated in both phases of the project.

² Further insights that qualitatively examined how two elementary teachers from this project exposed assessment-related vulnerabilities can be found at McFadden et al. (2022).

Additional information

Funding

This article was supported by the Mathematics and Science Partnership Grant.