Center for Standards, Assessment, and Accountability

Spotlight

Formative Insights – 2023 Aurora Institute Presentation Breakdown

In October, WestEd’s Formative Insights team attended the 2023 Aurora Institute Symposium and presented four different sessions on formative assessment, student agency and voice, and system-wide coherence. This Spotlight presents an outline of each session, the session learning outcomes, and relevant resources shared during the presentations. Explore highlights from each section and reach out to our team if you have any questions, or want to learn more! 

Developing Student Agency through Formative Assessment: Instructional Practices that Support Agency and Equity

During this session, participants explored how formative assessment practices support learner agency in the classroom to ensure equitable student learning outcomes. Through the use of a Student Agency Reflection Tool (link provided below), participants made connections between the process of formative assessment and how students develop the set of skills, mindsets, and opportunities that enable them to set actionable goals, and to reflect and adjust learning behaviors based on evidence of current learning.  

Presenters: 

Learning Outcomes:

  • Understand how formative assessment practices support the skills of learner agency. 
  • Learn how to plan and design instructional practices that support agency in the classroom. 
  • Understand how formative assessment practices and learner agency support equitable student learning outcomes. 

Session Resources: 

Culture, Identity, and Voice: Student Perspectives on Learner Agency through Formative Assessment

This student-led panel discussion featured four high school students and two teachers from Desert View High School, a part of the Sunnyside Unified School District in Tucson, Arizona. Reflecting on practices rooted in formative assessment, students shared their insights into  the changes in classroom instruction and classroom learning culture that their teachers have implemented to better support their learner identities and agentic skills. Each teacher on the panel had an opportunity to describe the intentional shifts that they have made in their classrooms to elicit evidence from students to improve their overall understanding of how the student role in learning is shifting. 

Presenters: 

  • Yesi Ayala, Program Associate I, WestEd ([email protected])
  • Kasie Betten, Educator, Sunnyside Unified School District – Desert View High School
  • Larissa Peru, Educator, Sunnyside Unified School District – Desert View High School
  • Ivan Angulo, Student, Sunnyside Unified School District – Desert View High School
  • Kiara Paez, Student, Sunnyside Unified School District – Desert View High School
  • Alonso Moreno, Student, Sunnyside Unified School District – Desert View High School
  • Dominic Shoals, Student, Sunnyside Unified School District – Desert View High School

Learning Outcomes:

  • Understand the central tenets of student agency in learning. 
  • Conceptualize instructional practices that support creating a foundation for student agency.
  • Explore the student experiences of learning practices that support agency. 

Session Resources: 

Redefining the Student Role in Assessment and Learning: Creating System Wide Coherence, Policies, and Practices that Drive Learner Agency

This panel session featured four members of the Sunnyside Unified School District – two instructional coaches, an elementary school principal, and the Chief Academic Officer. Their session explored what district, school, and teacher leaders are learning across the district as they align their shared vision to policy and increase coherence to strengthen formative assessment and student agency. Presenters detailed how implementing formative assessment to support a shift in the student role in assessments and learning requires students, teachers, and leaders to all have a shared vision of how students learn. 

Presenters: 

  • Pam Betten, Chief Academic Officer, Sunnyside Unified School District
  • Melanie Martinez, Principal, Summit View Elementary School 
  • Kasie Betten, Educator, Desert View High School
  • Larissa Peru, Educator, Desert View High School
  • Cali Kaminsky, Senior Program Associate, WestEd ([email protected])

Learning Outcomes:

  • Explore established learning focused routines in which educators from all levels of the system can develop the policies and practices that strengthen formative assessment. 
  • Understand the cycles of change for teachers and students as they enact more equity focused assessment. 
  • Explore what school leaders do to create conditions for teachers and students to enact assessment to strengthen agency and equity. 

Session Resources: 

Moving Toward Instructional Coherence: How Four Popular Student-Centered Approaches Deepen Identity, Agency, Equity, and Community

This book club session explored the relationships among and the connections between four popular student-centered practices as complementary approaches to enabling young people to be self-directed, empowered learners. The paper is intended to serve as a resource for school communities that are introducing or considering integrating different types of student-centered learning practices in a way that honors the capacities and strengths of each approach and recognizes that multiple approaches may benefit students.

Presenters: 

Learning Outcomes:

  • Examine the what, why, and how for four student-centered approaches: personalized learning, deeper learning, formative assessment, and culturally responsive education. 
  • Deepen understanding of design considerations for four instructional approaches and consider how each can deepen students’ sense of agency, identity, equity, and community. 
  • Learn about a framework for asking critical questions and leading conversations about student-centered, personalized learning that prioritizes equity of opportunity. 

Session Resources: 

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