The
Collaborative
Assessment
Conference


Description
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CAC in Action



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CAC in Action
From Looking Together at Student Work. Blythe, Allen, & Powell. Teachers College Press (1999).

At an urban middle school in Massachusetts teachers felt that they needed to "do more" with what students put in their folders. "I give the students time to reflect on their work, but I don't ever have time to reflect on it," said one teacher, to a chorus of head-nodding from others on the faculty. The school decided to institute regular Collaborative Assessment Conferences in order to give teachers more time to reflect on and discuss their students' work.

The school designated one of the weekly planning sessions each month to carry out a Collaborative Assessment Conference. The teachers took turns bringing a piece (or pieces) of work from one of their students. To lead the meetings, the principal invited facilitators from outside the school who were well versed in the Collaborative Assessment Conference.

At first, the protocol felt awkward. Many teachers were uncomfortable with having to describe and ask questions about a piece of work without knowing the assignment or the context in which the student was working. "It would be a lot easier if we knew more about the assignment and the student," several teachers commented as they reflected on the session.

The presenting teachers were first to identify the power of excluding context in the initial discussion. One commented, "When people began asking questions about the work, like 'What did this student learn the most about while putting together this project?', I realize just how much I don't know about my students." She continued, "It gives me ideas for what I need to go back and talk with them about." Another teacher realized that he never would have noticed the amount of effort and detail that went into a drawing that accompanied an essay without the benefit of other teachers' comments: "I was more focused on the writing part of the assignment. But as the other teachers described it, I started to see that the student had captured an important theme in the picture."

Over time, as the teachers became more comfortable with the Collaborative Assessment Conference, they found that the process helped them to identify important school-wide concerns: how to balance supporting students in long-term projects with encouraging them to work independently; how to tie important curriculum topics to student interests; how to get clearer with students about the standards and criteria for their work. These issues became topics for the whole school faculty meetings. One teacher summed up the importance of arriving at these issues through looking at student work:

"It's not like we couldn't have decided to concentrate on one of these issues without having gone through the Collaborative Assessment Conference. But, somehow, letting those issues grow out of looking at student work makes them feel more real, more grounded, more important. It's not someone telling us to pay attention to a particular issue. It's that we see the need for it ourselves in our students' work."