Editorial
School Library Media Activities Monthly/Volume XXV, Number 4/December 2008
Assessment Remains the Challenge
By Deborah Detenbeck Levitov
The highlight of the AASL Fall Forum in October 2008 was the keynote speaker, Everett Kline. Kline is the co-author of Transforming Schools: Creating a Culture of Continuous Improvement (ASCD, 2004) and has a long resumé of expertise related to assessment.
Kline congratulated AASL on the development of standards that do a "beautiful job of describing the habits of mind." He was very impressed with the new standards and pointed out that they address those things deemed most important by the business community: habits of mind, understandings, and performance competencies. He emphasized that library media specialists must gather data related to student achievement with the standards. He suggested this can be accomplished by creating assessments that help the student achieve and help the library media specialist do a better job.
He was impressed that the new AASL standards use verbs that reflect what students are to do to achieve (e.g., recognize, identify, distinguish, organize, apply, produce, communicate, understand, solve, evaluate). Kline recognized that the standards also offer specific performances expected, such as "enjoys and values products" or "selects appropriate information." These tell what students must do, but he stressed that students also need feedback—it is central to learning.
Kline emphasized that assessments must be useful, credible, fair and honest, rigorous, and feasible. Library media specialists must measure the performances reflected in the verbs—what behaviors equate "contributing positively to society"—and then collect data that show that students are performing accordingly.
Library media specialists will be part of determining if students are using mature habits of mind. Can they work independently? Do they demonstrate listed performances habitually? Do they understand—are they making meaning and transferring their understanding to new settings, using it in new ways?
Kline pointed out that assessment is intended to "improve achievement, not merely audit it." He explained that there are many ways to assess students (e.g., authentic tasks and projects, prompts and problems, quizzes and tests, informal checks through questions, observations, checklists, logs, artifacts), but the evidence must be grounded in authentic work with prompts, quizzes, etc., rounding out the assessment picture.
In summary, Kline confirmed that library media specialists have available an excellent set of standards. His presentation reaffirmed that assessing those standards remains the challenge that must be undertaken.