Assessing for Growth: Process Over Performance

• Amber Moss
• Posted 9/16/21
• 0 comments

Assessment is by far the most discussed topic in the education world. Data seems to drive everything in a student’s school career and has been proven effective in identifying growth.  

As a novice music educator, I thought assessment had to be paper-and-pencil driven and was the only way to identify what a student knows. As a result, I started marking all of my assessments as “performance-based.”  

What does “performance-based” even mean on a lesson plan? I was using it to identify those who were succeeding in my music classroom and not making a plan to help particular struggling students.

Fast forward to when I was working on my National Boards for Education, and that is when it hit me — I wanted my assessment to be based on multifaceted levels driven by the PROCESS and never the final result (the performance). 

As an elementary school music specialist, I wasn’t required to give a grade to any student. As a high school choir director, I was responsible for assigning my students a grade A-F. As a middle school music specialist and choir director, I gave grades to my 7th-grade choral students.  

This differentiation in grading requirements is relative because assessment looks different at each level on the surface. However, the surface level doesn’t tell the whole story. Just like an iceberg, the majority of your assessments in the classroom are unseen, and the only thing judged is the final product — the performance. 

So how do we get from the mindset of only judging the performance to monitoring our students’ progress in the process?

Self-Assessment

First, self-assessment is your friend. I have a visual reminder to my students in my classroom that states the following: 

• Expert — “I know this so well; I can teach it to someone else.” 
• Practitioner — “I can do this by myself, but I sometimes need guidance to help me through the process.” 
• Apprentice — “I understand this, but I need help along the way.” 
• Novice — “I am just beginning to understand this.” 

Self-assessment practice will not only help students reflect on a piece in your classroom, but you will be able to see where students are in their comprehension of whatever topic you are teaching. 

Monitor Student Progress Online

Next, use an online platform to monitor your students’ progress. I recommend using a video or audio recording. I have used Flipgrid (https://info.flipgrid.com/) since the Spring of 2020 and believe in empowering every student’s voice to collaborate with our class.  

A virtual platform gives students the flexibility to upload their progress when convenient for them. This platform also provides online and onsite students equitable access to discussions, assignments, and pass-offs. 

Meaningful Rubrics

Third, rubrics. A rubric can be student-, class/ensemble-, or teacher-generated. The goal of rubrics is not to have a “gotcha” moment, but rather to show students the exact expectations of their evaluation.  

If you are looking for ways to assess your students using this process, you need to hand out your rubric before starting the project. As you work through the process, continue to reference your rubric and check in to see where your students are in their achievements. 

Administer rubric checks at the beginning, the midpoint of your unit of study, and at the end. The goal is to see your students’ growth from the beginning to the midpoint to the end of the study. When you put your focus on this process, the performance will 100 percent be there. 

Give Students an “A”

Finally, give everyone an “A.” The book, The Art of Possibility by Rosamund Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander, discusses the idea of giving every student an “A” very early on. The idea is quite progressive, but it has been one of the most rewarding changes I made to my classroom.  

The idea is simple: everyone starts with an “A” because everyone is deserving of that A. As you progress through the school year, as long as your students are engaged and working hard, they keep their A.  

The book goes into great detail about the how, the what, and the why. I encourage you to read it, reflect on it, and see if it is something you would benefit from and incorporate it into your daily teaching.  

Giving everyone an “A” changed my entire classroom, and I was able to focus on growth through mastering the standards rather than worrying about assessments to prove I was grading. 

References

Zander, Benjamin & Zander, Rosamund Stone. (2000). The Art of Possibility. Harvard Business Review Press.