Case-Based Questions

Prepared by Mark A. Templin, University of Toledo

CASE 8-A

You have accepted your first teaching position as a middle school science teacher and you are in your first year of teaching. The school district that hired you is in the process of moving toward a "data-driven" system of management. This means that district level decisions, including ones having high stakes for teachers, will be based on assessment information. Even though you are just beginning your first year of teaching, your principal asks you to serve on the district science assessment subcommittee because she believes that you can offer the subcommittee fresh ideas. The subcommittee has been charged with developing a system of assessments in science that will document progress towards state standards and promote instructional change towards these standards. As a subcommittee, you must develop a workable plan for the design and implementation of an assessment system in science that will include both classroom and large-scale assessments. This plan will then be presented to the district continuous improvement committee for approval. You serve on this subcommittee with several other teachers who have a strong interest in science and a building administrator who acts as the chair for the subcommittee. As the group begins to work together the following questions arise:

1		One member is initially confused about the terminology being used and she asks you on the side, "How do classroom assessments differ from large-scale assessments?" What do you respond? (Chapter Learning Performance 8.2)
2		As the first meeting begins, the group must begin to conceptualize its task. The subcommittee chair asks the members to consider the following question, "What purposes do the classroom assessments need to serve in this district?" She asks each member to think about the question and respond in turn. How will you respond? (Chapter Learning Performance 8.1)
3		One member of your subcommittee wants to reuse a comprehensive series of publisher produced science tests that were developed nearly thirty years ago when he was a beginning teacher. He argues that it was a good test series then, and he insists that it will save the subcommittee and the district a lot of time and money to readopt them. You observe that these tests might be out of date. In response, he suggests that the tests are still as valid today as they were years ago because the "basic science concepts we teach haven't changed much" since then. He adds that, "It would be unfortunate to throw the baby out with the bath water." Other members tend to agree with your observation, but they need to hear other reasonable arguments before they will reject his suggestion. The subcommittee agrees to review the tests and determine if they are suitable. Upon what criteria should these assessments be judged? In other words, what features should these tests have in order to be considered suitable for adoption? (Chapter Learning Performance 8.4)
4		The subcommittee is concerned that at-risk students be well served by these assessments. One committee member suggests that multiple assessment methods should be used to address this problem. Other members argue that one common test series will be sufficient and that multiple assessments would imply different standards for different learners because some students would have "soft options" for being held accountable for what they learned. Which side of this debate do you agree with the most and why? (Chapter Learning Performance 8.3)
5		The subcommittee realizes that their work should be informed by others outside the district. How can other educators interested in science assessment collaborate with the subcommittee? (Chapter Learning Performance 8.7)

CASE 8-B

The subcommittee in Case 8-A has completed its work and has developed a science assessment plan. This plan includes a set of design recommendations for classroom assessments and design recommendations for large-scale testing in science across the district. Upon the advice of the subcommittee's science assessment plan, working groups of teachers at each of the various grade levels are now formed to seek out and, if necessary, write assessment items for a series of curriculum embedded, "short-cycle" (administered about once a month) probes. The subcommittee has also recommended that working groups at each grade level develop formative assessments to help students and teachers gauge progress towards learning performances measured by the probes. Since the majority of your teaching schedule involves teaching seventh graders, you join the working group that focuses on seventh grade science assessment. This working group begins by concentrating on the force and motion unit.

6		The working group begins by mapping out learning performances for the force and motion unit. The group leader scaffolds this process by reducing the complexity for each group member. Therefore, each group member is assigned only three of the six levels of performance for only two of the four cognitive dimensions. You have been assigned the "understand," "analyze," and "create" levels for the factual knowledge and conceptual knowledge dimensions. Create one learning performance per cell in the blank table below. Use Table 8.1 in the text and the National Science Standards to help you complete the table. (Chapter Learning Performance 8.5)     Understand Analyze Create Factual Knowledge       Conceptual Knowledge
7		Suggest one summative assessment (to be used as one or more items on the probe) for each of the six learning performances you created in Question 6, above. Use the blank table below. (Chapter Learning Performance 8.5)     Understand Analyze Create Factual Knowledge       Conceptual Knowledge
8		Suggest one formative assessment for each of the six learning performances you created in Question 6, above. Review each of the summative assessments you suggested in Question 7, above. Use the blank table below to record your formative assessment suggestions. How often should each of these formative assessments be conducted during the force and motion unit? Under your suggestion for each formative assessment, write the interval (e.g., once for the unit, once every two weeks, once each day, etc.) that you would recommend using each of the assessments. (Chapter Learning Performance 8.5 & 8.6)     Understand Analyze Create Factual Knowledge       Conceptual Knowledge
9		When you meet again as a working group to compile the complete 24-cell assessment table for the force and motion unit, you notice that the other members of the group have suggested assessments that could, at best, be used only once every one to two weeks. In fact, many of the assessments suggested are summative assessments that can only be used at the end of the unit. Why is it desirable to also include assessments that are formative and occur much more frequently than this? (Chapter Learning Performance 8.6)
10		Some members of the working group are concerned that these assessments are "pie in the sky," meaning that they seem unworkable for teachers. How will the instructional practices of these teachers need to change in order to successfully implement these new assessments? (Chapter Learning Performance 8.1)