Adjust Instruction

Rubrics 

Rubrics are useful for many different types of evidence of student learning, particularly those best suited to measure higher-order thinking skills like performance tasks, final projects, reports, or essays. They allow you to focus on specific aspects of student evidence and support consistency in analysis across student work samples.

Many rubrics organize the analysis of student work using a deficit-based approach, focusing on, and signaling to students, what they cannot do. In contrast, a strengths-based approach to rubrics focuses on what students can do and supports partnering with students to identify new goals. This approach is grounded in the understanding that all students learn at different paces and in different ways, but all students can improve and learn. Strengths-based rubrics can be used to validly assess standards-based learning and provide feedback to students that can help them meet the expectations described in the grade-level standards.

• A Strengths-Based Approach to Assessment Rubrics - Read this article from the Leadership for Educational Achievement Foundation (LEAF) Inc., which compares deficit-based and strength-based rubrics and provides practical suggestions for using rubrics that focus on what students can do and provide opportunities to build on those strengths. As you read, reflect on the range of rubrics you currently use in your classroom.
• Rubric calibration protocol - Review this rubric calibration protocol and reflect on how a protocol like this could help you and your colleagues use rubrics more consistently.

Interpreting and Responding to Student Work

Watch the narrated presentation about bringing an equity- and learning-focused mindset to the analysis of student work, then read the handout and respond to the reflection questions. As you watch, reflect on your current practice of student work analysis and consider whether there are any areas in which you might like to grow.

• Narrated Presentation - Interpreting and Responding to Evidence of Student Learning
• Considerations for Interpreting Student Work for Learning and Equity - Here is the handout referenced in the narrated presentation with recommendations for equitable grading.
• Tools for Analyzing Student Work - Read this article to learn more about the different tools and strategies to help you when interpreting and responding to evidence that students provide. 

Using MCA Data 

• Making Sense of State Summative Results - This article outlines resources for making sense of Minnesota State Summative Assessment Results

The Minnesota Questions Tool (MQT) is an online resource that can assist educators in learning more about the types of questions students experience when taking the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment (MCA). This tool allows you to search through released MCA items to gain better understanding of the different item types and ways evidence of student learning is gathered by the MCA.

• Using the Minnesota Questions Tool - Read this short article to learn more about the MQT and how it can help to inform your instructional decision-making.
• MQT Protocol Worksheet - Use this worksheet to help you as you navigate through the MQT to consider ways the MQT can help inform instructional decisions in your classroom.

Teachers can request a Benchmark Report from their district’s assessment coordinator that provides information about student performance on the MCA at the benchmark level within the grade-level standards. The Minnesota Academic Standards are divided into one or more benchmarks that provide more specific details about the academic knowledge and skills that students are taught from the standards themselves. Data from the Benchmark Report help teachers understand how well students in their school or district performed on the strands, substrands, and benchmarks within the MCA.

• MCA Benchmark Report - This article explains how Benchmark Reports can assist you in understanding your school’s performance and how to use these summative assessment data appropriately.