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Supporting assessment autonomy: How one small school articulated the infrastructure needed to own and use student data

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Abstract

This paper reports the results of an 18-month integrated, problem-solving research study of one new school’s efforts to create a K-12 system of student assessment data that reflects their innovative vision for personalized and student-centered instruction. Based on interview, observational, and documentary data, the authors report how teachers articulate, measure, and assess student core competencies, aligned with a common vision and supported by a technology interface designed to promote data use. Findings from this study add to the research literature on assessment and data use by articulating the necessary knowledge and supports teachers in new autonomous schools need to develop and formatively use student assessment data.

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Notes

  1. This assessment was part of a project at the partner university to develop a set of performance assessments aligned with the Common Core State Standards. Although the set of social studies assessments included grade level content standards, there was a misalignment in the timing of the content to be assessed in the spring.

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Correspondence to Karen Hunter Quartz.

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Quartz, K.H., Kawasaki, J., Sotelo, D. et al. Supporting assessment autonomy: How one small school articulated the infrastructure needed to own and use student data. J Educ Change 15, 125–152 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10833-013-9219-4

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