2015 MAC Tests

Formative and Summative Tools for Enhanced Learning

Written to the Common Core Standards

“Mathematics is not a careful march down a well-cleared highway, but a journey into a strange wilderness, where the explorers often get lost.”

Fermat’s Enigma, p. 71

Formative Assessment Workshop

What makes MAC/MARS tests unique?

• Teachers and students see results and types of errors.

• Errors are examined and used to enhance learning.

• Focus is always on student thinking and learning not sorting and ranking

• Emphasis is on the classroom and what’s next!

Change is Happening-Growing from 25 original districts to over 150, including a large cohort in Southern California.Standards are changing, state tests and reporting is changing. New grade levels are added, including our first set of toolkits for Course 3, Algebra 2. We are also making available a version of tests for high school integrated programs.Many districts are testing for the first time.

Mathematical Practices• Perseverance• Reason abstractly and Quantitatively• Construct viable arguments and critique the

reasoning of others.• Model with mathematics.• Use tools strategically.• Attend to precision.• Look for and make use of structure.• Look for and express regularity in repeated

reasoning.

Students develop their ability to construct viable arguments and to critique the reasoning of others.

• What makes a good justification?• What is involved in making it complete?• What types of quantification can be used to

support claims or conjectures?• What sentence structures help students

develop a logical sequence to ideas?

What does it mean to know something?

• How do students construct knowledge?• How does that sound differently than

parroting ideas from the teacher?• Genuine connections versus another learned

fact???• During the testing process, we make visible

those strategies students know well enough to pull out of their toolbox in a problem-solving situation.

• Some mathematics only happens in context

What stays the same?

• Emphasis on student thinking: What do we learn about student misconceptions? How does this help us make those important changes in instruction to provide feedback and push thinking forward to grade appropriate strategies?

• Tests are one of the best vehicles for helping teachers develop this skill. Provides common experience to foster conversation among peers.

Spending Time talking about a task

• As teachers debate ideas and discuss student work, errors, successful strategies, layers of understanding a big idea, they take away ideas that help them in the day to day art of teaching.

Emphasis on Student Thinking

• Helps teachers think about what it means to understand a concept and anticipate what students will do. This, in turn, allows teachers to plan questions to better facilitate discussion and think about sequencing of sharing student ideas.

• Helps teachers learn to look and understand alternative strategies and reward seeds of good mathematical thinking.

Tests create Common Standards

• Tests define the standards and grade level expectations in ways reading the standards doesn’t. Google doesn’t know all! Just because it says Common Core, doesn’t make it so!

• It creates a commonality it what is acceptable, giving feedback to teachers and students.

• It shows the difference between teaching and learning, identifies the “gap” in a very personal way.

Emphasis on Classroom Instruction

• What stays the same is the focus, not on scores, but on insights to change practice and improve learning for students.

• Scoring sessions provide professional development by showing weaknesses and allowing conversations about how to improve instruction.

As we explore- better tools

• Over the course of our work together, we have continued to build and develop better tools for thinking about students, what they know, what they get confused about.

• We have become less concerned about right or wrong, but what issues need to be addressed in the classroom to promote learning.

• Elementary Formative Assessment Re-engagement Lessons

Analyzing Student Work

• What strategies did successful students use?• What are the common errors?• What mathematics needs to be better

articulated or understood?Use end of scoring time to discuss what teachers

have learned and what comes next in the classroom.

Allow time during scoring training to talk about alternative strategies and why they make sense.

Effective Formative Assessment Strategies

Clarifying learning intentions and sharing criteria for successEngineering effective classroom discussions.Providing feedback that moves learners forward.Activating students as the owners of their own learning.Activating students as instructional resources for one another.

Dylan Wiliam, University of London

“What makes the class good is that everybody’s at different

levels so everybody’s constantly teaching each other and helping

each other out.” (Zane, Railside school)

Building Citizenship

Investigate student work:

• Can you figure out what the student was thinking? What was the logic of their strategy?

• What did you like about the strategy?• Did the strategy work? Could the strategy

have led to a correct solution? How?

Exploring More Ways to use Student Work

• Use work as a tool to solve a problem or gain insight about a strategy

• In the middle of a lesson, look at someone else’s work and see if you can explain what they are doing

As a collaborative we are pushing boundaries on how to think about lessons and incorporate student thinking.

Organizing for Testing

• What do I need to think about?• What materials to I prepare? • How do I prepare teachers?

Hearing Teacher Comments

• Wording of Test – doesn’t matter if you don’t know concept.

• Disagree with Rubrics – importance of consistency/defining the gray areas

• What is the hidden meaning beneath their words?

• Hold the vision of the bigger picture

Giving Everyone a Voice

• Teacher comments on blank tests– Feel heard– See how to improve task selection– Give us ideas about future professional

development needs– Send to me: provides ideas for next year’s

professional development and ideas that help me look closer at student work.

Test Instructions

• Copies of test instructions are included for teachers.– Security of exams– “Interesting problems”– Use of manipulatives and calculators– Time– Marking AB for Absences, the classroom teacher is the

only one who really knows if the student was present and didn’t work or did not take the test.

– Don’t record tests with AB’s in the spreadsheet! Only want scores of complete tests.

How you present problems . . .

• Determines what you get . . .• Personal story about interesting problems• Talk to staff about the importance of how tests

are presented, classroom atmosphere, materials available to students and accommodations for special needs students.

Security of Exams

2015 Tests• Please put District # on the front cover (this is

easier if done before you run off the tests)• Run tests front to back and use book staples if

possible• Some districts prefer to add a page in the

middle to clarify the end of day 1 (make sure that 2-page tasks will still be facing each other).

• Back Page has been provided in your testing package.

Front Cover

Labeling

Labeling

Middle of Test

Back Cover

Middle of Test

Test Printing

• All printers read files differently.• For example, spacing may come out differently

or computers have different versions of Microsoft.

• Equations, in particular, seem to come out differently.

• Do a sample run to look for issues, before doing the large run.

Test Printing

• Grid Lines:– 3rd- Patio Tiles– 8th - M.C. Escher– 8th - Candi’s Tablet– 10th/Int. 1 – Isosceles Triangles

• Graphics:- 7th – Thatched Roof- 9th/Int. 1 – Babysitting Blocks

Tests On-line

• The 2015 tests and Spanish versions are available on line under member resources/ MARS tests 2015 at – www.svmimac.org– But the password is changed to prevent teachers

from downloading them before testing– User: svmimember2– Password: lucky13– Administrator File Password:MACMARS

Integrated Tests

• There are sets of tests for an Integrated High School mathematics program. The tasks have been reformatted to have correct page numbers. These are only available on-line.

• Scoring training will be adjusted to allow for teacher leaders to train for just the integrated tests – but I need all the high school districts to sign up today or by Friday with training preference.

MAC Policies

• Middle School Exams- Time should not be a factor.

• Second Grade Administration• Same day for a grade level• Special Needs/ Accommodations• Inclusion

Kinder and First Grade Tasks

• Kinder and First Grade Tasks – For formative use only– Use one task at a time as appropriate during the

year– Data will not be collected and is for use by

classroom teacher only or for professional development

– Work best as interview or small group – We don’t collect student work as a collaborative.

Preparing for Scoring

• Number of Scorers– Approximately 1 scorer for every 75 papers for 2-5– Approximately 1 scorer for every 60 papers for 6-8– Approximately 1 scorer for every 50 papers for

Geo. And Algebra 2

Materials• Administrative Checklist• Questionnaire 2015• Red pens• Green Sheets• T&S papers unscored• Blank copies of tasks• Rubrics in pink• Notes to Scorers• Introduction Powerpoint optional

Scoring is Professional Development

• Place to look at expectations and mathematical demands. Develop a shared vision for what students should know and be able to do.

• Work collaboratively to develop plans for helping students meet standards.

• 2015 Questionnaire is in your resource folder and other Data Analysis Tools are available on-line to help with site discussions of test results.

Organizing the Day

• Large districts or collaborations – 1 room per task

• Smaller districts band together for scoring to minimize costs of sending leaders to scoring training

• Smaller districts score 1 task as a whole group, then divide scorers in half and do 2 more tasks each

Common Issues• Finding time for scoring

– Minimum days– Coach scores 1 task– Substitutes– Saturdays– Professional Development Day scheduled on

calendar• Teacher unions• Doing an entire grade level versus volunteers

Data Collection

Testing Dates

• Test Window: March 2nd – March 13th • Data Collection Designee to me by Friday Feb.

6th- See Yellow sheet in Packet • Data Entry Template to District Designee by

March 13th- make sure they are expecting it and know what its for

Scoring Locations• Breakfast snacks and coffee will not be provided.

Teachers need to know this!! Some people are quite cranky without morning beverages.

• Lunch will be provided.• Districts need to send their teachers to correct

locations by district, not by where teachers live. Each participant receives almost 200 pages of materials, so it isn’t just a quick trip to the copier when participants go to different locations.

Data Entry on Tests

• Include test level, not grade in school, when entering data

• Many districts got data that didn’t make sense, don’t let this happen to you.

• I will have Cindy send out an email with the codes for the Integrated tests.

Planning for Data Entry

• Score sheets• Test Levels for Data• MAC/CSIS numbers• Demographics for Individual Student Reports

Optimize Data Entry

• Using Score Sheets• Removing front covers• System to make it faster to return tests to

students and teachers for classroom use

Initial Data Deadlines• Wednesday, April 22nd for MAC spreadsheet

and mailing pulled tests to me• Individual Student Report Files to you by May

15th • Other dates, see chart, obviously some

uncertainty about time for results from Smarter Balance

Pulled Papers

• Each year we ask districts to pull 1 paper from every folder, this year we want the first paper from the folder.

• These papers are sent to me to for use developing the tools for teachers or toolkits, designing Individual Student Reports, and are used for the scoring audit, to check on reliability.

Algebra 2 Tests

• We did develop an Algebra 2 toolkit this year!• To continue this process, we need to make

sure that enough sample student work is submitted.

• If your district is testing only a small number of students at this level, try to send in two or three papers per class. Choose one near front, middle, and last from each folder.

Mailing Address• Teacher Comments• Questionnaires• Pulled Tests: last test from every folder or group of 20

Linda Fisher237 Navigator Dr.Scotts Valley, CA 95066

Send early if possible. This helps inform the individual student reports and allows a better analysis for the cut scores.

New Scorer Leader Training

• Tomorrow in Hayward• Designed to help facilitators lead scoring sessions:

How to deal with disagreement, how to represent your district well, how to use the scoring as an opportunity for professional development and as formative assessment to use in the classroom

Room is still available. This year many administrators will also be attending as less coaching time is available. This helps new administrators become more familiar with the process and how to organize for scoring.