How can assessment practices be designed to best support student learning? In school, the term “assessment” is often shorthand for “grades”—or, perhaps, tests, quizzes, rubrics, and similar evaluative tools. However, thinking of “assessment” as interchangeable with “test” or “grade” limits the potential for assessment practices to lead to meaningful and deeper learning.
Reforming classroom assessment starts by understanding that everyone is capable of valuable assessment and, in fact, does so all the time. When teachers make assessment practices transparent and invite students to participate in the process, they help students articulate what—and how—they are learning and what they most value in their education. Called student-centered assessment, this shift in perspective and practice brings meaningful activities into the classroom and sends important student work into the community.
Student-centered assessment requires that assessment is no longer something that happens to students via teacher-determined standards, grades, or non-negotiable tests. Rather, assessment becomes a set of practices that students apply to their work to understand and articulate what they find important and why. When done well, this type of assessment is subject to a variety of perspectives and provides a vehicle for equity: all classroom voices are heard and valued and all students are given opportunities find their strengths and growth areas. Student-centered assessment practices are informative, collaborative, and reflective. These practices occur when students self-assess, peer-assess, when the teacher’s role shifts, and when the classroom and school structure provide support for student participation—or even leadership—in assessment. While student-centered assessment occurs most seamlessly within the parameters of project-based classrooms, the practices can be incorporated into any classroom.
Student-centered assessment practices begin, somewhat naturally, with student self- assessment. When all students critically look at their own work and habits, and when their assessments are taken seriously, they are empowered to begin the work of projects, problem solving, and deeper learning. One step toward students developing agency over their own learning is discovering how to articulate—with examples and evidence— what matters to them. Why is this work important? What do we value in this work and why? What difference does this work make? Where is our work headed, in terms of our learning and our impact on the world? These questions lead to the broadening of assessment practices. No longer are narrow testing categories, or even teacher-prescribed expectations, enough. Instead, the rich world of student voice allows for more real-world assessment. It is in this opportunity for student voice that a path to equity can be forged. It is also in these conversations that students develop a greater sense of agency—value, belongingness, growth mindsets—as learners. Accordingly, this article focuses on practical advice for facilitating strengths-based self assessments with students.
Students bring a wealth of strengths, skills, and preferences to the classroom. To facilitate thoughtful, personal self assessments in their classes, teachers need to help students acquire the language to describe their own strengths and to specifically call out their areas of growth. Before beginning a project or having students join a group, teachers should have students take stock of their personal strengths and growth areas. This helps them frame the work they are about to do, making the most of their strengths and making them able to share their strengths with their peers and teachers. These self-assessments help team members learn how to support one another, maximize complementary strengths, and mitigate potential conflicts.
Teachers can provide examples of strengths they feel relate to the work of their classroom and help students select a few to share with peers. Some teachers cut strips of different colored paper representing these strengths and place them at the front of the room, or across tables. Students come up and select two strips they feel most relate to them. They then bring the strips back to the table and share with their peers in a way that suggests they are “physically bringing their strengths to the table.” Identifying and discussing the strengths they see in themselves helps students proceed through group work or partnerships more effectively and helps each student feel like they have a place. Examples of strengths might include:
The National School Reform Faculty’s “Compass Points” is another activity that helps students pinpoint their inherent strengths. Are some students quick actors who like to jump into new experiences (“Northerners”)? Do some prefer to take a step back and look at the big picture (“Easterners”)? Are some always aware of peers’ emotions, and careful to include all voices (“Southerners”)? Do some pay close attention to details (“Westerners”)? Once the directions are announced, students physically move to the part of the room they feel represents their personality. Once grouped according to compass points, they identify the strengths and challenges of their personality, and share their self-assessments with the class before joining a group to do work.
Regardless of the specific activity, students should regularly share their self-assessed strengths with each other and with their teachers. Sharing strengths aloud gives students’ self-assessments explicit value in the classroom. By communicating these self-assessments to teachers and peers, students share valuable insights into their identities and needs, and offer opportunities to engage them more personally.
Self-assessing strengths, habits, and preferences powerfully sends the message that Elizabeth Cohen and Rachel Lotan identify in their research: “All of us have some of these abilities” and “None of us has all these abilities” (Cohen & Lotan, 2016). This is, at its heart, a message of equity; it empowers students who struggle to find their place in the classroom and reminds higher status students that they too have areas of growth.
Another way to approach self-assessment is to offer students the opportunity to explain, with evidence, what they think of their work—and if a grade is on the line, to allow students to determine the parameters and values for themselves. This tool could be used at the start or middle of a project to help students articulate what constitutes beautiful work for that particular assignment or project. It could also be used at the end of a project as the criteria by which students assess final products.
Mentor examples—outstanding work done by professionals, peers, or other community members—help align student and teacher expectations regarding many aspects of project-based learning, and student self-assessments are no exception. Students compare their work to a few high quality mentor examples and then answer two questions, being sure to include evidence from both the exemplary work and their own:
This type of self-assessment assumes that all students do some things well and all have room to grow. Those students who have historically struggled in class can be guided to build on their strengths (and to note that they are doing some things similar to professionals), and the students who feel that their first draft is good enough for an “A” must articulate areas in which they can continue to improve.
Self-assessing in the context of high quality examples helps teachers shift summative assessments to formative ones that address a student’s ongoing growth. When students articulate what they value in professional work, they offer information about their own decision making and evaluative processes and provide valuable insight into how they see their own trajectory. The results of this practice help better align a teacher’s work with what their students need and want.
This protocol is designed to help students critique their work in the context of high quality examples and to craft an evidence-based response that assesses their successes and areas for continued growth. These evidence-based self-evaluations are useful in portfolio development, future reflections, and a variety of ongoing assessment practices.
First: Students, get your work! As you complete this self-assessment, be sure to have the following easily available: your final draft of your work, the provided professional example, and another high quality example of similar work that influenced you.
Then: Answer the following, and include direct evidence wherever necessary.
This protocol can also be used to have students grade their own work—if this is desired, simply add, “What grade would you award your work and why?” Then, use students’ responses as an opportunity to align your vision of quality with theirs. You will gain insight into how and why they made project-related decisions and be better positioned to support them in creating work that is more finely tuned to professional standards that you—and, most importantly, the students—respect.
At Liberty Ranch High School, Mandy Garner engages her students in projects in the adult professional world through a variety of agricultural Career Technical Education classes: floriculture, advanced floral design, agriculture biology, agriculture leadership, and elements and principles of design. Her students run agricultural businesses—they provide floral services for weddings and formal events in the community, run a community-supported agriculture box program, and more. Mandy and her students regularly compare their work to professional examples because in many ways, it is their competition.
In the spring of 2016, Mandy began asking her students to provide written self-assessments of their work. Initially, this was an imperfect art, until she began requiring students to include photographs and detailed analyses of their professional influences. Mandy took similar self-assessments from English and history classes that asked students to compare their writing to professional writing. She adapted these to fit the needs of CTE classes; rather than have students use text-based quotations to compare their writing to professional examples, Mandy’s students photograph examples of professional work similar to what they do in class, and compare them to their own work with corresponding evidence of their own processes and products. Now, as each student works on a project, he or she saves important photographs, plans, and related documents from his or her work, and similar elements from relevant professional work. As each student product is shared with adults in the community, either because it is sold via one of the school-run businesses, or because their work is regularly displayed in the school community, students speak and write in response to prompts like “My work is similar to professional work in that…” or “I am working to more like the professionals in that…”
Cohen, E., & Lotan, R. (2016). Producing equal-status interaction in the heterogeneous classroom. American Educational Research Journal, 32(1), 99–120. https://doi.org/10.2307/1163215
How can assessment practices be designed to best support student learning? In school, the term “assessment” is often shorthand for “grades”—or, perhaps, tests, quizzes, rubrics, and similar evaluative tools. However, thinking of “assessment” as interchangeable with “test” or “grade” limits the potential for assessment practices to lead to meaningful and deeper learning.
Reforming classroom assessment starts by understanding that everyone is capable of valuable assessment and, in fact, does so all the time. When teachers make assessment practices transparent and invite students to participate in the process, they help students articulate what—and how—they are learning and what they most value in their education. Called student-centered assessment, this shift in perspective and practice brings meaningful activities into the classroom and sends important student work into the community.
Student-centered assessment requires that assessment is no longer something that happens to students via teacher-determined standards, grades, or non-negotiable tests. Rather, assessment becomes a set of practices that students apply to their work to understand and articulate what they find important and why. When done well, this type of assessment is subject to a variety of perspectives and provides a vehicle for equity: all classroom voices are heard and valued and all students are given opportunities find their strengths and growth areas. Student-centered assessment practices are informative, collaborative, and reflective. These practices occur when students self-assess, peer-assess, when the teacher’s role shifts, and when the classroom and school structure provide support for student participation—or even leadership—in assessment. While student-centered assessment occurs most seamlessly within the parameters of project-based classrooms, the practices can be incorporated into any classroom.
Student-centered assessment practices begin, somewhat naturally, with student self- assessment. When all students critically look at their own work and habits, and when their assessments are taken seriously, they are empowered to begin the work of projects, problem solving, and deeper learning. One step toward students developing agency over their own learning is discovering how to articulate—with examples and evidence— what matters to them. Why is this work important? What do we value in this work and why? What difference does this work make? Where is our work headed, in terms of our learning and our impact on the world? These questions lead to the broadening of assessment practices. No longer are narrow testing categories, or even teacher-prescribed expectations, enough. Instead, the rich world of student voice allows for more real-world assessment. It is in this opportunity for student voice that a path to equity can be forged. It is also in these conversations that students develop a greater sense of agency—value, belongingness, growth mindsets—as learners. Accordingly, this article focuses on practical advice for facilitating strengths-based self assessments with students.
Students bring a wealth of strengths, skills, and preferences to the classroom. To facilitate thoughtful, personal self assessments in their classes, teachers need to help students acquire the language to describe their own strengths and to specifically call out their areas of growth. Before beginning a project or having students join a group, teachers should have students take stock of their personal strengths and growth areas. This helps them frame the work they are about to do, making the most of their strengths and making them able to share their strengths with their peers and teachers. These self-assessments help team members learn how to support one another, maximize complementary strengths, and mitigate potential conflicts.
Teachers can provide examples of strengths they feel relate to the work of their classroom and help students select a few to share with peers. Some teachers cut strips of different colored paper representing these strengths and place them at the front of the room, or across tables. Students come up and select two strips they feel most relate to them. They then bring the strips back to the table and share with their peers in a way that suggests they are “physically bringing their strengths to the table.” Identifying and discussing the strengths they see in themselves helps students proceed through group work or partnerships more effectively and helps each student feel like they have a place. Examples of strengths might include:
The National School Reform Faculty’s “Compass Points” is another activity that helps students pinpoint their inherent strengths. Are some students quick actors who like to jump into new experiences (“Northerners”)? Do some prefer to take a step back and look at the big picture (“Easterners”)? Are some always aware of peers’ emotions, and careful to include all voices (“Southerners”)? Do some pay close attention to details (“Westerners”)? Once the directions are announced, students physically move to the part of the room they feel represents their personality. Once grouped according to compass points, they identify the strengths and challenges of their personality, and share their self-assessments with the class before joining a group to do work.
Regardless of the specific activity, students should regularly share their self-assessed strengths with each other and with their teachers. Sharing strengths aloud gives students’ self-assessments explicit value in the classroom. By communicating these self-assessments to teachers and peers, students share valuable insights into their identities and needs, and offer opportunities to engage them more personally.
Self-assessing strengths, habits, and preferences powerfully sends the message that Elizabeth Cohen and Rachel Lotan identify in their research: “All of us have some of these abilities” and “None of us has all these abilities” (Cohen & Lotan, 2016). This is, at its heart, a message of equity; it empowers students who struggle to find their place in the classroom and reminds higher status students that they too have areas of growth.
Another way to approach self-assessment is to offer students the opportunity to explain, with evidence, what they think of their work—and if a grade is on the line, to allow students to determine the parameters and values for themselves. This tool could be used at the start or middle of a project to help students articulate what constitutes beautiful work for that particular assignment or project. It could also be used at the end of a project as the criteria by which students assess final products.
Mentor examples—outstanding work done by professionals, peers, or other community members—help align student and teacher expectations regarding many aspects of project-based learning, and student self-assessments are no exception. Students compare their work to a few high quality mentor examples and then answer two questions, being sure to include evidence from both the exemplary work and their own:
This type of self-assessment assumes that all students do some things well and all have room to grow. Those students who have historically struggled in class can be guided to build on their strengths (and to note that they are doing some things similar to professionals), and the students who feel that their first draft is good enough for an “A” must articulate areas in which they can continue to improve.
Self-assessing in the context of high quality examples helps teachers shift summative assessments to formative ones that address a student’s ongoing growth. When students articulate what they value in professional work, they offer information about their own decision making and evaluative processes and provide valuable insight into how they see their own trajectory. The results of this practice help better align a teacher’s work with what their students need and want.
This protocol is designed to help students critique their work in the context of high quality examples and to craft an evidence-based response that assesses their successes and areas for continued growth. These evidence-based self-evaluations are useful in portfolio development, future reflections, and a variety of ongoing assessment practices.
First: Students, get your work! As you complete this self-assessment, be sure to have the following easily available: your final draft of your work, the provided professional example, and another high quality example of similar work that influenced you.
Then: Answer the following, and include direct evidence wherever necessary.
This protocol can also be used to have students grade their own work—if this is desired, simply add, “What grade would you award your work and why?” Then, use students’ responses as an opportunity to align your vision of quality with theirs. You will gain insight into how and why they made project-related decisions and be better positioned to support them in creating work that is more finely tuned to professional standards that you—and, most importantly, the students—respect.
At Liberty Ranch High School, Mandy Garner engages her students in projects in the adult professional world through a variety of agricultural Career Technical Education classes: floriculture, advanced floral design, agriculture biology, agriculture leadership, and elements and principles of design. Her students run agricultural businesses—they provide floral services for weddings and formal events in the community, run a community-supported agriculture box program, and more. Mandy and her students regularly compare their work to professional examples because in many ways, it is their competition.
In the spring of 2016, Mandy began asking her students to provide written self-assessments of their work. Initially, this was an imperfect art, until she began requiring students to include photographs and detailed analyses of their professional influences. Mandy took similar self-assessments from English and history classes that asked students to compare their writing to professional writing. She adapted these to fit the needs of CTE classes; rather than have students use text-based quotations to compare their writing to professional examples, Mandy’s students photograph examples of professional work similar to what they do in class, and compare them to their own work with corresponding evidence of their own processes and products. Now, as each student works on a project, he or she saves important photographs, plans, and related documents from his or her work, and similar elements from relevant professional work. As each student product is shared with adults in the community, either because it is sold via one of the school-run businesses, or because their work is regularly displayed in the school community, students speak and write in response to prompts like “My work is similar to professional work in that…” or “I am working to more like the professionals in that…”
Cohen, E., & Lotan, R. (2016). Producing equal-status interaction in the heterogeneous classroom. American Educational Research Journal, 32(1), 99–120. https://doi.org/10.2307/1163215
