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You
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Learning Strategies > Assessment
Working Smarter Through Collaboration:
The Maryland Assessment Consortium
by Jay McTighe
The Maryland Assessment Consortium represents a unique collaboration of Maryland's twenty-four county school districts. Established in 1991, the Consortium was formed to address two primary goals: 1) to provide high-quality staff development programs on performance-based assessment and instruction, and 2) to collaboratively develop, field test, validate, and disseminate formative performance tasks for use by teachers as part of their instructional programs.
The operating philosophy of the Consortium is to "work smarter" through collaboration in order to provide higher-quality products and services than could be developed by schools or districts working on their own.
Each summer, the Consortium conducts a two-week Performance Task Development Workshop. In addition to training sessions offered by national and regional experts in performance assessment, educators from throughout the state work in teams to design formative performance assessment tasks and scoring rubrics. Following validation, the most effective of these performance assessment tasks are distributed to each school system for classroom use by teachers and as models for local task development.
School districts in Maryland recognize a dual benefit of membership in the Consortium. In addition to the products they receive, participating teachers are involved in one of the most powerful forms of staff development as they share ideas with colleagues throughout the state. Performance task development engages teachers in addressing essential questions of the profession --
- what are the most important student understandings and proficiencies that we seek to develop?
- what authentic activities will engage students in demonstrating these understandings and proficiencies?
- how will we integrate formative performance assessment as an ongoing part of instruction
- by what criteria will we (and our students) judge the quality of products and performances?
- how will we adjust instruction so as to prepare students to successfully reach challenging performance standards?
In addition to the development of assessment tasks, the Consortium produces videotapes on performance-based assessment and instruction, offers conferences and workshops throughout the year, sponsors two state Leadership Networks, and offers consulting services to Maryland school systems.
For more information regarding the activities and products of the Maryland Assessment Consortium, contact Jay McTighe by mail, telephone or FAX:
Maryland Assessment Consortium
c/o Frederick County Public Schools
115 East Church Street
Frederick, MD 21701
Telephone: (301) 694-1337 FAX: (301) 694-1800
Some Recommended Resources on Performance Assessment
An article adapted from their book appeared in Pennsylvania Educational Leadership recently. The article proposes that "the primary purpose of classroom assessment is to inform teaching and improve learning, not to sort and select students or to justify a grade."
The process of developing and using well-written rubrics (providing criteria that describe student performance at various levels of proficiency) requires teachers to be precise about expectations of quality when evaluating student performance. Students who have a clear understanding of learning expectations are motivated to succeed.
Ways to develop the criteria for evaluating student performance that make up a rubric are explored in this book. Also available from ASCD:
Assessing Student Outcomes: Performance Assessment Using the Dimensions of Learning Model (stock no. 611-93179)
Comprehensive sets of annotated bibliographies on performance assessment have been prepared by Judith Arter and Ann Davis at the Northwest Regional Education Laboratory (NWREL.) These bibliographies are organized by subject areas (reading, mathematics, science, social studies, and writing) and topics (portfolios), and are available for a modest fee to cover duplication and mailing costs.
A consortium of the national Regional Educational Laboratories has produced this excellent resource. Packaged in a three-ring binder, the Tool Kit contains a wealth of material related to performance assessment, including workshop modules, transparency masters.
© Jan 1996 New Horizons for Learning
http://www.newhorizons.orgFor permission to redistribute, please contact:
info@newhorizons.org