STC NYC Roundtable: Performance-Based Assessment & Data-Driven Instruction
On Tuesday October 29, STC NYC held its first School Leader Roundtable of the school year. More than 20 educators from 8 schools representing all 4 sectors attended, along with representatives from the NYC Department of Education and other educational organizations. Principal Christina Tettonis and her team at Hellenic Classical Charter School in Brooklyn were incredibly hospitable hosts showing attendees around to classrooms, sharing instructional resources, and feeding us well with tabbouleh and hummus!
The topic for the evening was “Performance-Based Assessments and Data-Driven Instruction.” Through the sharing of best practices, we hoped that leaders would leave with concrete strategies and resources to incorporate into their school’s data and assessment systems. Additionally, Minerva Diaz shared a brief overview of Peace Jam, a fabulous service learning and character education program built around lessons learned from 13 living Nobel Peace Laureates.
To break the ice and start on a positive note, everyone shared “fabulous fall feats” from their schools. Next, Leslie Chislett, a director from the DOE’s Office of School Quality, discussed leadership shifts to facilitate effective school-wide data-driven instruction. She shared the DOE’s revised Quality Review rubric that is used to evaluate schools, but which also can be used effectively as a self-assessment tool to guide continuous improvement. Leslie focused leaders in on relevant strands, shared effective practices from high-performing schools, and identified tools to support this work.
Next up, Michael Cassaro and Ashley Baffour shared Mott Haven Academy CharterSchool’s data action-planning tools and processes. Leaders at the Roundtable discussed different methods and programs for creating meaningful interim assessments, and Michael and Ashley shared templates to guide action planning, regardless of the actual assessment. Last year, professional development focused on helping teachers build comfort and facility with their analytic skills. With that foundation, teachers can now arrive at data planning meetings having already analyzed their interim assessment data and instead focus their discussions on what to do with the data. Haven Academy works with an external organization to administer interim assessments 5 times a year, which allows for targeted re-teaching, re-assessing, and small group instruction to address individual students’ needs on a relatively tight cycle.
To round out the presentations, Hellenic’s Literacy Coach and ELA teacher Cathy Kakleas and Meg Duff shared strategies for using performance-based assessments to monitor reading and writing progress. Meg shared a Common Core-aligned checklist that students regularly use to close-read their own reading responses. Participants had lots of questions and seemed eager to adapt a similar strategy in their departments. Cathy then shared the school’s approach to on-demand writing, which is done twice in each unit of study. To streamline feedback and inform instructional adjustments in response to students’ work, staff members spent a fair amount of time during summer pre-service training norming on expectations for writing so that teachers can more easily identify trends and make quick adjustments instead of getting too bogged down in picking apart individual essays.
100% of participants indicated that they identified at least one idea or resource that they can use in their school, and the general consensus was that this conversation would continue among school leaders and educators. STC NYC will follow up with small group study tour opportunities to see these practices in action, as well as resources to further support this work.
We are excited to see everyone at VOICE Charter school next month when we will be discussing best practices around facilitating professional learning for teachers!