Instructure Intros Assessments to Help Schools Identify Learning Gaps
- By Dian Schaffhauser
- 04/13/21
A December 2020
purchase of Certica
Solutions is bearing fruit for learning management
company Instructure.
The maker of Canvas
has announced a new collection of formative assessments specifically
intended to help teachers measure "learning loss," built by
the curriculum and assessment experts who joined as part of that
acquisition. MasteryView
Assessments are short, pre-built evaluations for math
and English language arts that align with various state learning
standards. The assessments can be used with MasteryConnect,
an assessment management program produced by a company of the same
name also owned by Instructure and integrated with the Canvas LMS.
The assessments are
online quizzes and cover math and ELA for grades 3-8. The math
versions of the tests cover about 15 "priority" learning
standards for each grade. Each assessment has between five and eight
questions. The ELA edition focuses on reading comprehension of both
informational and literary texts -- about three for each grade. Each
ELA assessment includes one or two passages with a short set of
questions.
The assessment
content is delivered through MasteryConnect, providing immediate data
on student mastery levels, with the goal of helping teachers figure
out which students need additional support and which standards need
to be retaught.
The assessments are
expected to be made available in August 2021 for some grades and
states.
According to
Instructure, the assessments were created using a psychometric
algorithm based on the Diagnostic Classification Model (DCM), to
develop "valid, reliable data" on student mastery with
fewer questions. The algorithm was developed by Jonathan Templin, a
professor in the Department of Psychological and Quantitative
Foundations in the University
of Iowa College of Education.
"The
combination of more focused assessments and an innovative
psychometric model allows teachers to use shorter, standards-based
assessments throughout the academic year as a reliable gauge of
standards mastery," Templin said in a press release.
"Students,
teachers and parents have already experienced enough disruption, so
how we approach the evaluation of learning loss in the coming months
is critical," added Mitch Benson, chief product officer at
Instructure. "That means investing in an approach that teachers
can trust, one that doesn't take up significant instructional time,
and perhaps most importantly, in a way that directly benefits each
student. We designed MasteryView Assessments to meet these needs, and
to ensure districts can leverage much-needed stimulus funding to
support their efforts."
The company
suggested that the assessment solution would fit the criteria for
relief funding provided by the federal government to address learning
needs during and after the pandemic.
Instructure will be
hosting a 30-minute
Zoom webinar to introduce the new assessments on April
22, 2021 at 10 a.m. Mountain time.
About the Author
Dian Schaffhauser is a former senior contributing editor for 1105 Media's education publications THE Journal, Campus Technology and Spaces4Learning.