represent what the teacher expects students to ultimately know or do (learning target or desired level of proficiency). Notice that students move closer and closer to desired levels of proficiency. They do this by recalling, reflecting on, applying, and reapplying the small components of a given learning target.
Figure I.2: Evidence-based sequence of instruction and assessment.
Think about it this way: figure I.1 is like teaching a child how to ride a bike by making sure he or she knows all the bike parts (pedals, handlebars, and so on) and how they function. Figure I.2 represents how you would actually teach a child to ride the bike. You let the child get on the bike right away, and he or she learns to ride while simultaneously making sense of the bike parts.
In evidence-based grading, teachers must remember that instruction has no shape or size. The first step is to realize that lessons are not small, systematic increments to success, but rather arbitrary reactions to student input and output. Evidence-based instruction promotes self-reflective interaction with expectations. Subsequently, evidence-based instruction manages and supports a space for learning to occur.
When instruction focuses on reaction, the lesson centers less on the teacher. Students become more involved in their own learning. However, this only happens when teachers use proficiency-based learning targets. Proficiency-based learning targets are defined states of competency that act as learning outcomes (Gobble et al., 2016). In Proficiency-Based Assessment, Gobble et al. (2016) state that proficiency-based learning targets have three components.
1. Proficiency language outlines the intended state of competency. Examples of this language include words such as effectively, main, appropriate, all, and creatively. These words are important because they contextualize the state of competency for students as well as allow students to accurately perceive their own state of competency. Moreover, these words create the reflective foundation for learners to gain appropriate perspective and prevent them from becoming overconfident in their skills or knowledge.
2. Measurable language outlines how students show the extent of their competency. Examples of this language include phrases such as in writing, with sufficient detail, in order, and with personal connection. These phrases are important because they state the framework through which we evaluate competency. For example, if the proficiency-based learning target has the measurable language in writing, learners know that teachers will evaluate their competency via what they write.
3. Gradations of competency are essential for self-reflection and growth. According to Gobble et al. (2016), gradations properly contextualize proficiency, create purpose for instructional activities, make student-produced evidence growth driven, and provide a script for quality feedback. Evidence-based grading is a method for learning, not just a way to determine a grade.
Evidence-based instruction means that learning targets are active learning tools for students. Teachers and students use feedback related to the target to help students grow, reflect on learning, organize their thoughts, review work, self-assess, and revise learning to demonstrate growth in a skill area. Clear feedback helps students relate the target to the evidence they create, which is at the center of the learning process. This is similar to backward design, in which the value lies in students knowing expectations for outcomes prior to starting the learning process.
Incorporating reflective and reaction-based instructional practices makes it more likely that students achieve an intended level of mastery. By continuously reflecting and revising, students consistently examine how well they are performing and work to make continuous improvements. This approach asks students to communicate clearly about how they evaluate their learning. Ultimately, by focusing our instruction on reflection and reaction, we give students the structural guidance they need to reach proficiency expectations through proficiency-based targets.
Assessment Gives Students Opportunities for Reflection and Feedback
Asking students to interact reflectively with assessments as often as possible creates a learning environment that fosters continual growth. In evidence-based grading, assessment is a reflective interaction with one’s own current state of learning. This essentially means that assessments are events that ask students to assess their own learning regarding who they are now and who they are becoming in relation to an expectation: the proficiency-based learning target.
For this to happen, students must have the opportunity to distinguish between the targeted proficiency level and their ongoing, developing performance. Evidence-based grading is based primarily on quality proficiency-based assessment practices: “the process of creating, supporting, and monitoring student reflection and thought patterns to achieve an intended state of competency” (Gobble et al., 2016, p. 15).
As evidence-based teachers, we want students to prepare for and summarize their learning reflectively. We want them to be mindful and observant of their progress. In contrast to traditional assessment, evidence-based assessments ask students to be aware of how they are producing the evidence of their learning rather than what they produce.
Gobble et al. (2016) refer to this concept as proficiency-based reflection—examining one’s current state of competency and considering potential next steps to further understanding. These opportunities involve several critical facts.
• Assessments are reflective events.
• Students must be aware of their proficiency level.
• Students must accept feedback.
Assessments Are Reflective Events
If an assessment promotes reflection, efficacy, and self-questioning, then it is more personalized and meaningful for the learner. When teachers approach assessment from the reflection angle, it can guide their instruction and simultaneously provide students with growth feedback tied to clear proficiency-based targets (Chappuis, 2009; Gobble et al., 2016).
Students Must Be Aware of Their Proficiency Level
Proficiency-based reflection helps students become aware of questions that emerge from their interaction with the proficiency-based target. In order for students to answer these questions, we must help them develop proficiency awareness—a personal interpretation of their gradation of competency (Gobble et al., 2016). By being attentive to the state of competency, students not only become more active in their learning but also begin to trust their own self-assessments.
Students Must Accept Feedback
When teachers create assessments that help students reflect and develop proficiency awareness, students more easily understand the relationship between the feedback they receive and their learning. Students will understand that their own learning and development are directly tied to feedback’s frequency and quality. And when this happens, students more easily accept even critical feedback.
Teachers should create the following conditions in their classrooms to help students accept and react to feedback (Gobble et al., 2016).
• A learning culture that asks students to make connections, not just produce correct answers
• Events that promote an active search for meaning
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