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February 2002

Welcome to Exemplary Initiatives online!

Exemplars is a community of users dedicated to helping schools become successful in standards-based performance assessment and instruction. Our monthly newsletter features short pieces from Exemplars users, as well as brief reflections on current education issues and trends that impact standards, assessment and instruction.

If you would like to contribute, or have comments you would like to share, please get in touch with us at info@exemplars.com. We look forward to hearing from you.

Making Standards Concrete

A number of years ago, when Vermont decided to assess student work using portfolios, we developed standards: what does a portfolio consist of and how should it be assessed. Over the course of a year, we consulted with many people around the state and a general agreement emerged on these standards. At the end of the year we felt we had achieved a consensus; virtually everyone involved agreed, the standards we were using to assess portfolios were a success. We felt we had developed a common standard.

However, as we began to assess portfolios, we realized that this was far from the truth. When we looked at student work together we did not always agree on what we saw. One of us might score a portfolio on a particular dimension at a two, while someone else would score the same portfolio at a three. This meant, of course, that we actually had not yet reached a common standard.

What we realized was that common standards are grounded in student work. We could not reach a common standard until we analyzed the student work together, and consistently came to the same conclusions. It is only when we look at the work as a group and agree on what we see, that we have truly reached a common standard.

We also learned that the words in standards are abstract and can be interpreted differently. It is only when the abstract words are linked to concrete examples in the student work - anchor papers or anchor papers - that standards become real. We needed to look at the work for evidence of the descriptions in the rubric. That is how, in Vermont, scoring of math portfolios has become much more reliable. People who are scoring portfolios do agree on what they see, they do have common standards.

This agreement is important not only in assessing student work, but also in establishing expectations. What do we want our students to know and be able to do? Our goal at Exemplars is to make these expectations as concrete as possible.

You can find a good example of this goal on our website, where we have posted student responses to the task, Marshmallow Peeps, at grades 2, 4 and 6. This task carefully demonstrates - What would we want Second graders to do? Fourth graders? Sixth graders? Students at each level are able to solve the problem, but their responses become increasingly sophisticated and their strategies more efficient. As they develop they are able to make generalizations. Reviewing these concrete examples will make our expectations very clear about what meets the standards and what does not, at each grade level. We hope you will find this tool extremely helpful in assessing your own student's work, and in guiding them to meet the standards. Back to top

Everyday Math Correlations

Exemplars has partnered with Everyday Math to combine our strength in problem solving with their daily curriculum. In the Alignment section of our website, each Everyday Math Unit is aligned with The Best of Math Exemplars K-8, vol. I and vol. II tasks. You can link directly to this section or find it under "Professional Resources ". Back to top

Science Literature Links

Each task on Exemplars Best of Science K-8 is now linked to children's literature and various science kit activities for grades K-5. You can link directly to this section or find it under "Professional Resources". Back to top

Exemplars Instructors in Singapore

Singapore is at the top of the charts in International comparisons of student performance in math and science. As a result, Singapore's academic programs have been highly touted in this country and a number of school districts have adopted Singapore math texts.

That makes it particularly gratifying that four Exemplars professional development leaders were invited to spend two weeks in Singapore working with Ministry of Education (MOE) curriculum leaders, lead teachers (teacher leaders who volunteer to be out of the classroom for 2-3 year stints at the MOE headquarters), teachers in classrooms and students. The goal was to strengthen Singapore's standards-based academic programs, gain experience in performance assessment and in using rubrics to assess student performance.

The four Exemplars leaders were: Aldo Bianchi and Deb Armitage (Math), Karen Kurzman (Language Arts), and Paul Smith (Science).

Although their experiences varied, they spent time collaborating with their Singapore hosts in evaluating standards. They asked the question, "Does this represent what we want students to know and be able to do in these fields of knowledge?": writing assessment tasks to determine whether or not Singapore students were meeting their standards; creating rubrics to assess levels of performance; modeling standards-based teaching and instruction; and scoring student work. They all came home exhausted, but exhilarated. Rumor has it they are being invited to return. Back to top

Deb Armitage with one of her Singapore demonstration classes.

Deb, Karen, Aldo, Paul and friends enjoy the sites of Singapore.

Two members of the Ministry of Education review Exemplars material with Deb Armitage.

Two students using Exemplars math tasks.

Singapore girls work on an Exemplars math task.