Balancing Michigan’s Assessment System through Performance Assessment – Facilitated discussion among Michigan Educators

This session will invite participants to imagine a process by which Michigan educators could implement a more balanced approach to assessment and give every district access to high-quality interim/benchmark assessment tools that measure the state’s content standards in a cost-effective manner. Presenters will describe how, by working in concert, assessment and subject matter experts, policy leaders, and local districts could create interim/benchmark performance assessments—in all subjects and grade levels—that teachers could embed periodically in instruction. Presenters will also explore how educators could take advantage of a cost-effective, virtual scoring system for such assessments using tools such as the already-created Michigan Collaborative Scoring System (MI-CSS), powered by OSCAR Classroom. This online tool promotes teacher collaboration in scoring student work, helping teachers to better understand what high-quality student work looks like, and how to use performance assessment to assess the deeper learning that results in student achievement.

This session will address these questions:

• How could collaboratively developed interim performance assessments balance Michigan’s assessment system?
• How might an online collaborative scoring system promote professional learning among educators and trust among administrators and policymakers in the results of performance assessment?
• What lessons can be learned from the Michigan Arts Education Instruction and Assessment (MAEIA) program and from the educators currently using MAEIA’s catalogue of performance assessments in the arts?