Year 1 Math/Science Partnership (ACCESS)

This project’s primary goal is to develop a bank of high-quality, middle school science classroom formative assessments. These assessments will be aligned to KAS and thus be 3-dimensional, phenomenon-based, task-oriented, and intended to be embedded in the classroom practices of teachers to inform instruction. Along with the formative assessments themselves, clear success criteria will be generated to guide the 45 grade K-8 teachers in analyzing their students’ work products. In addition to the primary set of formative assessment products, project outcomes include multiple layers of learning for teachers, students, and administrators. Targeting teachers as the primary leverage point for enacting meaningful and long-lasting instructional change that leads to stronger student learning, the three specific outcome targets for teachers includes: learning a process for continued development of KAS-aligned formative assessments; learning a protocol and interpretation approaches for analyzing student work from these formative assessments; and deepening their knowledge of how to best craft and adjust daily instruction to effectively guide a progression of student sophistication in using science and engineering practices. These teacher learning outcomes are well-aligned with Kentucky’s Highly-Effective Teaching and Learning component 2 (classroom assessment and reflection). All of these teacher learning outcomes are seamlessly interwoven throughout project activities.