Running Head: EDUCATIONAL MISALIGNMENT

Week One Assignment

White Paper: Educational Misalignment

Nermin H. Fialkowski

National University

AAL- 656 Assessment for Learning

Professor Mark LaCelle-Peterson

March 4th, 2019

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Fellow colleagues,

Let’s all take a moment to reflect on why we became teachers. What was it that brought

us into education? How did we end up here as high school math teachers? Now, let’s think about

our purpose as high school teachers. Isn’t the purpose of high school, to prepare students for the

real world? To prepare students for college and/or the work force? I mean isn’t that the order of

things? Elementary school students feed into middle school, middle school prepares students for

high school, and high school prepares students for remedial math courses.

More than 60% of all community college students in California are placed into remedial

classes (Shelton & Brown, 2010). This high rate of remediation suggests that there is a

widespread lack of college preparation among recent high school graduates. Although students

are underperforming in standardized tests, it does not mean they are not successful in their high

school career. Students are still meeting the minimum course requirements for university

admission but are placed into remedial classes. And our school site follows trend. Data from

our school site suggests a large discrepancy between students meeting college/university

admission and their SBAC scores. Looking at the 2017-2018 school year, 70% of our students

met the A-G requirements, but only 11% met or exceeded the SBAC Mathematics Standards.

The core of this epidemic lies between a misalignment of standardized tests, college placement

exams, and high school (classroom) assessments.

So how can we as teachers address this issue? Through the use of formative assessment.

Formative assessment is defined as the “formal and informal process teachers and students use to

gather evidence for the purpose of improving student learning” (Chappuis, Striggins, Chappuis,

& Arter, 2012, p. 24). Formative assessment supports student learning. Results are interpreted

frequently and used for planning the next steps in instruction. The process provides descriptive
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feedback to students and involves them in the assessment process (Chappuis, Striggins,

Chappuis, & Arter, 2012). Formative assessment is a continuous cycle of identifying students’

progress towards meeting the learning targets and adjusting instruction in order to support them

in meeting those targets. Ultimately, “formative assessment practices work to increase

achievement because they change the student’s interaction with assessment” (Chappuis,

Striggins, Chappuis, & Arter, 2012, p. 27). Igniting this change with assessment is vital as

assessment is usually attached to a negative connotation due its over-emphasis and high

frequency.

During 2001, The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) ignited a standardized-based

education. The notion was that setting high standards and establishing measurable goals would

improve education, with hindsight being the closure of the achievement gap (The History of the

Elementary and Secondary Education Act). States were required to adopt academic standards for

mathematics, reading, and science, and establish assessments that were aligned to these standards

(Evolution of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act 1965 to 2015). These standards

would then define what students should know and be able to do in order to be considered

proficient (Elementary & Secondary Education Act (ESEA)/No Child Left Behind (NCLB)). No

Child Left Behind was the era of “teaching to the test” which then became increasingly

unworkable for schools and educators. It was criticized for setting unrealistic goals and placing

too much authority on education policy with the federal government (Every Student Succeeds

Act: Information and Resources). Then in 2015, The Every Student Success Act (ESSA) was

passed. This Act maintained the expectation that there will be accountability and action to affect

positive change in the lowest-performing schools. It advanced equity by upholding critical

protections for America's disadvantaged and high-need students. The Every Student Succeeds
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Act has a focus on students being taught to high academic standards that will prepare them to

succeed in college and careers, Something NCLB overlooked. (Every Student Succeeds Act

(ESSA)).

High-stakes exams identify students who lack the knowledge and skills for their grade

level but does not identify as to why they are not proficient (Trumbull & Lash, 2013). Currently

these high-stakes exams are not linked closely enough to classroom instruction and curriculum

(Trumbull & Lash, 2013). The misalignment of standardized tests, college placement exams,

and classroom assessments deals with the invalidity of associating educational quality to

standardized achievement test scores (Popham, 1999). There are there main factors of this

invalidity, 1- test-mismatch, which deals with what is taught locally versus what is tested; 2-

elimination of important test questions, such that the only meaningful comparisons among

students are only from a small collection of items; and 3- confounded causation, which all

aspects of a student’s learning, what is taught in school, their native intellectually ability, and

their out-of-school learning (Popham, 1999).

So, as we reflect on how we ended up here as high school math teachers, let’s not blame

standardized tests for our large discrepancy in student achievement between high school

graduation rates and college/career readiness. Instead let’s work on closing this gap together.

There needs to be a more balanced approach to assessment. What we need is an assessment

system that yields useful information for a variety of educational purposes (Trumbull & Lash,

2013). We need something that will shape our ongoing classroom instruction, while complying

with state accountably decisions. What we need are coherent assessment levels that align with

same learning targets across classrooms and the state. We need a coherent and balanced

assessments that will produce relevant information about student learning over time. And
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formative assessment is the answer! Formative assessments are a balanced and coherent

assessment system. They provide information that can be used as feedback to modify teaching

and learning. Formative assessments help form and shape student learning during the learning

process. While focusing on how students understand material, not just on what they understood.

The purpose of formative assessment is to close the gap between students’ current learning

situation and where they want to be with their learning and achievement.

In order to implement this change of assessment, the change first needs to happen with

you, the classroom teacher. The classroom teacher must know the ins-and-outs of assessment, to

truly understand assessment by design. To know what the need for assessment is, as well as

what the assessment assesses (Stiggins, 2014). Most importantly, you, as the classroom teacher

must know what to do with the results, otherwise, the assessment serves no purpose. Once you

have an understanding for the need and methods of assessment, you can then communicate its

importance to your students. Assessment is a journey that is taken by both the teacher and their

students; “we must move beyond seeing assessment merely as something adults to do students

and understand that it is something students constantly do to themselves” (Stiggins, 2014, p. 87).

So, let’s take action and stand up for our students, let’s give them the education that they

deserve. Let’s give our students a fighting chance of being successful and work towards closing

the achievement gap. Implement formative assessments in your classrooms now!

“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”

Your fellow high school math teacher,

Nermin Fialkowski
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Resources

Chappuis, J., Striggins, R., Chappuis, S. & Arter, J. (2012). Classroom Assessment for Student

Learning: Doing it Right- Doing it Well (2nd ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.

Elementary & Secondary Education Act (ESEA)/No Child Left Behind (NCLB). National Center

for Learning Disabilities. Retrieved from: https://www.ncld.org/archives/action

center/learn-the-law/esea-nclb

Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). U.S. Department of Education. Retrieved from:

https://www.ed.gov/essa

Every Student Succeeds Act: Information and Resources. The National Conference of State

Evolution of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act 1965 to 2015. The Hunt Institute.

[PDF]. Retrieved from: http://www.hunt-institute.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/

09/Development-of-the-Elementary-and-Secondary-Education-Act-August-2016.pd

Legislatures. Retrieved from: http://www.ncsl.org/ncsl-in-dc/standing committees/education/

every-student-succeeds-act-essa-information-and resources.aspx

Popham, W.J. (1999). Why Standardized Test Don’t Measure Educational Quality. Educational

Leadership, 56(6), 8-15.

Shelton, A., & Brown, R. (2010). Measuring the Alignment of High School and Community

College Math Assessments. Journal of Applied Research in the Community

College, 18(1), 6-15.

Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium. Retrieved from: https://www.smarterbalanced.org

Striggins, R. (2014). Revolutionize Assessment. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin

The History of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. Retrieved from: http://3fl71l2qoj

4l3y6ep2tqpwra.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wpcontent/uploads/ 2014/07/ESEA.pdf
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Trumbull, E., & Lash, A. (2013). Understanding Formative Assessment: Insights from Learning

Theory and Measurement Theory. San Francisco: WestEd.