Assessing Teacher Competency in Formative Assessment

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The purpose of the project is to create a tool that can be used in classrooms to inform teachers of science knowledge they need for instruction. The tool would help determine whether middle school science teachers are competent in interpreting assessment data and providing feedback to foster student development. The investigators would construct teacher assessment tasks based on statewide science standards, validate them, and use them in an online learning environment for teacher learners. The investigators imagine that their project is a capacity building project that develops innovative frameworks and tools to enhance capacity of evaluators of small and large-scale education programs. The investigators plan to conduct some basic research to observe the characteristics of middle school science teachers understanding and use of formative assessments. Much of the theoretical design is based on previous work in England by Paul Black and Dylan Wiliam. They intend to investigate teacher content knowledge and learner context as well as the attitudes and beliefs of teachers about the role of learners in the classroom. The study would focus on a unit of Human Body Systems in a middle school of Bellevue Schools in Washington. The researchers have worked with these districts previously and have access to the schools and teachers for this project. The methods involve collecting video, observing teacher interactions, and study of the formal assessment tools. Self-reported questionnaires will be used to identify indicators of teacher knowledge and background characteristics. About 8 data collection instruments will be designed after being adopted from existing large-scale studies. The amount of data will allow both quantitative measurement and qualitative descriptions of the school events. The results of the study are expected to create a new description of the dimensions of teacher formative assessment understandings and practices. This information will allow them to construct a set of a series of scenarios to measure teacher formative assessment competency. The project will produce a new method for teachers to use in classrooms.