Evaluating Students Through Group Work, Projects, and Portfolios

Evaluating Students Through Group Education Projects, and Portfolios                                                   

Evaluating Students through Group Work, Projects, and Portfolios

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Is there a better way than standardized tests to find out what students are learning? A small number of states, districts, and educators have long sought to find an answer to that question. Problem- and project-based learning, cooperative learning, portfolios, senior projects, and competence-based learning—to name a few—are all versions of this ongoing movement to evaluate students on what they can do with what they know rather than their test-taking skills.

But evaluating student learning this way can be highly subjective:

    • How can teachers and administrators assess students’ performance in fair, constructive ways?
    • What are the biggest challenges to implementing performance-based learning and how are schools getting around them?
    • How do you know students are acquiring the deeper learning that projects were intended to cultivate?

Education Week offers a big-picture look at the current state of performance assessment and pinpoints some best practices. In this virtual event, Education Week journalists and guests will staff online "discussion" rooms on a host of topics, including group work, the move to competency-based learning, and new efforts to abolish letter grades.

Join them on Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2019, from 1 to 3 p.m. ET, for a deep dive into student assessments in your schools. This Online Summit provides you a unique opportunity to directly interact with reporters and assessment experts and practitioners; to watch a livestreamed series of interviews with the reporters after they've “broken it down” with you; and finally, to enjoy a live webinar presentation led by an Education Week reporter on the very latest in student assessments derived directly from our latest special report on the topic.

Evaluating Students Through Group Education Projects, and Portfolios        

Agenda

·         1:00–2:30 p.m. ET | Student Assessment Summit 2019 Discussions Open
Education Week journalists and guests provide practical takeaways on student assessment
Room 1: An On-the-Ground Perspective on Performance Assessment

‣ Moderator: Stephen Sawchuk, Associate Editor, Education Week
‣ Guest Speakers: Young Whan Choi, Manager of Performance Assessments, Oakland Unified School District, Oakland, Calif.; Scott Marion, President and Executive Director, Center for Assessment
‣ Join Education Week’s curriculum reporter Stephen Sawchuk for a discussion of how one district incorporated a yearlong performance assessment into its graduation requirement—and some of the opportunities and challenges it faced.

Room 2: Performance Assessment and College Admissions

‣ Moderator: Catherine Gewertz, Senior Contributing Writer, Education Week
‣ Guest Speaker: Peter Ross, Principal, Education First
‣ Do students have a tougher time getting into college if they come from schools that use projects and portfolios as assessments? Veteran reporter Catherine Gewertz explores several initiatives that are working with colleges to take a broader view of applicants’ academic achievements.

Room 3: Letter Grades: Help or a Hindrance?

‣ Moderator: Madeline Will, Staff Writer, Education Week
‣ Guest Speaker: David Frangiosa, Physics Teacher, Pascack Hills High School, Montvale, N.J.
‣ A growing number of teachers complain that letter grades tend to distract students from real learning and are too heavily based on non-academic factors. But this grading system is notoriously difficult to eradicate, and schools’ attempts to substitute alternative grading systems often face backlash. Education Week reporter Madeline Will and her guest discuss how some teachers are moving away from the traditional grading practices.

Room 4: Making Group Projects Fair for Everyone

‣ Moderator: Sarah D. Sparks, Associate Editor, Education Week
‣ Guest Speaker: Art Graesser, Professor, Department of Psychology and the Institute for Intelligent Systems, University of Memphis
‣ A common complaint among students working in group projects is that the work is divided unfairly; one student carries the load or dominates the discussion, while others just show up. How can teachers ensure that tasks and grades for group work are being doled out fairly? Sarah Sparks explores practical wisdom and research on what works in evaluating group projects.

Room 5: Making Assessment Painless

‣ Moderator: Alyson Klein, Assistant Editor, Education Week
‣ Guest Speakers: Allison Timberlake, Deputy Superintendent for Assessment and Accountability, Georgia Department of Education; Scot Osterweil, Creative Director, Education Arcade and the Game Lab, MIT Comparative Media Studies Program
‣ Thanks to a new state law, Georgia is trying out game-based assessments for students in kindergarten through 2nd grades. These are “formative assessments” to help teachers gauge what students know in math and reading and so far dozens of districts have signed up to participate. Alyson Klein shares insights from Georgia educators on how their experiment with game-based assessments is working out.

·         2:30–3:00 p.m. ET | Final Reporter Wrap-up 
Student Assessments: In Conversation With Education Week 
Led by the reporters, the Education Week newsroom will close out the day with insights from the discussions they've had with you, the readers.

*Agenda and times subject to change. Check back regularly for updates.