Designing Common Core Assessment

Unit of Study Assessment for First, Sixth, & Algebra

Thaihoa Nguyen
Teachers College of San Joaquin
January 13, 2015

Designing Common Core Assessment

Stockton Unified School District designed a new curriculum called, Unit of Study. The district
designed this new curriculum making sure it aligned with the Common Core. The program piloted last
year. This year the entire district is implementing it. The goal of the Unit of Study (UoS) is to help
prepare students for the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC).
During this assignment I have collected data for each of the grade spans using the Unit of Study
assessments. For the K-3 grade span, I used first grade UoS Posttest 2. For the 4-7 grade span, I used
sixth grade UoS Posttest 3. And for the eighth grade UoS Algebra Posttest 3. The Unit of Study
assessments consisted of: selected responses, constructed responses, and extended responses. The
questions were all multiple choice in the old district chapter tests. Multiple choice is not a good way to
measure what students know. The old assessment does not let teachers know exactly what skills the
students are not understanding. Students have a 25% chance of getting the right answers. It does not
require students to think on a higher level. I have seen students just sit and guess on answers. Low
students scored high on the test because they guessed correctly.

DATA for First Grade:

What I found very interesting when I collected data for the first grade UoS assessments was that
almost all the questions were constructed responses. The first grade assessments were given orally as
whole class instruction. Students listened and follow their teachers instructions. See samples on page 5
that I collected. The first question asked students to color in the six blocks and write two addition
sentences to go with the picture they colored. The high student understood and did it correctly. The
medium student colored it but only got one of the addition sentences correct even though he used two
different numbers to add up to six. The low student did color it but did not match the total colored

Designing Common Core Assessment

blocks to her addition sentences. The second constructed response asked students to write a
subtraction problem about the falcons in the picture. The high student was able to construct a table for
the picture and also wrote two subtraction sentences. I noticed that the students were not penalized
when writing additional sentences when the direction stated, Write a subtraction sentence. The
medium student was given one point because she constructed a table and was able to write one
subtraction sentence. The low student was not able to construct the table correctly and he wrote one
addition sentence that did not correspond with the picture. This constructed response demonstrated
students ability to understand how to write addition and subtraction sentences.

DATA for Sixth Grade:

The sixth grade UoS had more constructed responses than selected responses. Rubrics were
provided for teachers to grade the assessments. What I liked about the selected responses is that it
requires students to select all answers that applied. On page 6, are the data collected for sixth grade
assessments. The high student was able to select all that applied. The medium student was able to get
one of the multiple choice questions correct and the low student did not get any of the answers correct.
The second sample collected was a constructed response. The task asked students to fill in the table and
answer question. In order to answer the question, it required students to be able to complete the table.
The high student was able complete the table correct and answer the question correctly. The medium
student was able to get the first two answers correctly on the table but got lost somewhere on the way
and ended up with the incorrect answer to the question. The low student showed that she did not
understand anything related to the question and she probably put in random numbers just to complete
the chart.

DATA for Algebra:

Designing Common Core Assessment

The algebra UoS consisted of all three of types questions. Again, rubrics are given to help
teachers grade the assessments. On page 7 you will find results for the extended responses and
constructed responses. For the extended response question, students needed to demonstrate how to
write an equation for the problem and use the equation to justify their reasoning for why Jillian should
take the cab or train. The high student was able to come up with the equation and used the equation to
solve the problem and explained his reasoning. The medium student showed an equation but did not
explain the reasoning correctly even though you can see the work was done correctly. The low student
did not provide an equation and the reasoning was incorrect. For the selected response samples;
students had to select answer(s) that made the statement true. The high student was able to select all
the correct choices. The medium student got two out of three correct. The low student was not able to
get a correct answer. Did the child misread the question? In this case, I would say no because this is my
student and I know his math level.

Conclusion:
The Unit of Study assessments comes with pretests and posttests. The assessments give me the
tools to really understand where the students are and what need help on. It helps me to plan my lessons
with particular focus on the skills that students need. Its a way to group students and give them
problems at their ability level. The assessment rubric is a great way to score students because students
can get partial points for their written responses, instead of getting the whole problem wrong as in a
multiple choice question. The assessments require students to think at the higher level by writing and
showing their work. Teachers can see what concepts the students are missing and reteach it. The one
thing that teachers do not like about the UoS is that it is time consuming. The constructed and extended
responses require teachers to read students work and give them points for answers. The UoS
assessments are definitely good practice for the upcoming SBAC.

Designing Common Core Assessment

Designing Common Core Assessment

Designing Common Core Assessment