K-12 CS Assessments

CSAssess is a CSForAll:RPP project related to the NSF grant titled Seeding an Assessments Hub and Catalyzing a Community of Educators for Student Success in CS. The project entails exploratory research and development activities to (1) seed a sustainable technology hub (for and by teachers along with researchers and technologists) that push the boundaries on rich, innovative assessments organized by CS standards, grade, concepts, curriculum and other relevant criteria for intuitive use by teachers of all experience levels, (2) create a framework for helping make formative assessment a critical part of K-12 CS classroom practice, and (3) support professional development and a Community of Practice (CoP) for K-12 CS teachers in the US centered on a shared need for quality assessments and building CS teachers’ assessment capabilities. A strong interdisciplinary leadership team from Looking Glass Ventures, LLC (creator of an NSF-SBIR funded assessment authoring and delivery platform-‘Edfinity‘) and Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA), will collaborate with K-12 CS teachers, curriculum developers, the CSForAll community, and experts in the field to execute this vision.

This project is funded by the CSForAll program of the National Science Foundation (CNS #1943530).

[Capacity Building] Partnering with teachers to conduct workshops and PD aimed at building capacity among K-12 CS teachers to make formative assessments an integral part of their classroom practice

• • Design of a open-source teacher professional development module — Formative Classroom Assessment for Teachers, and related resources for community use.
    
  • Capacity building teacher workshops and PD
    • K-12 CS Assessments Hub Virtual Workshop (April 6, 2020).
      [Facilitators: Shuchi Grover, Bryan Twarek, Daniel Moix, Padmaja Bandaru, Kelly Powers, Vicky Sedgwick]
    • Formative Assessment and Feedback for K-12 CS Learning (CSTA 2020 Workshop,  July 13, 2020)
      [Facilitators: Shuchi Grover, Bryan Twarek, Daniel Moix, Kelly Powers, Vicky Sedgwick]
    • Formative Classroom Assessment for Teachers in K-12 Computer Science (CSTA Professional Learning Series)
      [Facilitators: Shuchi Grover, Bryan Twarek]
      • Session 1: What/Why/How of Formative Assessment (April 15, 2021)
      • Session 2: Quiz-Based Assessment Items (April 22, 2021)
      • Session 3: Misconceptions & Action Planning (April 29, 2021)
    • CS Assessments Hub Training Webinar (May, 2021)
      [Facilitators: Shuchi Grover, Bryan Twarek]
    • Misconceptions As Learning Opportunities (CSTA 2021 Workshop, July 15, 2021) [Facilitators: Shuchi Grover, Bryan Twarek]
    • CSTA Chapter Leadership Summit (July 2021)
      [Facilitator: Bryan Twarek]

[CS Assessments Hub] Creation of a repository of K-12 CS assessments

Contributors/Collaborators/Creators: Shuchi Grover, Daniel Moix, Padmaja Bandaru, Kelly Powers, Vicky Sedgwick, Pauline Lake, Darci Santella, Derek Babb, David Petty, Danielle Bodine, Mobile CSP, Code.org, BJC, UTeach-CS, 

• Over a 1000 assessments organized by curricula, standards (e.g. CSTA, for now), curricula, grades, and by user-created tags such as programming language (if applicable) have been aggregated, curated, organized and created on edfinity.com
• Assessments are autogradable but go beyond multiple choice and multiple select to include Parson’s problems, matching column, Hotspot/point & click, subgoal labeling, and unit test code correctness (currently only for Python).
• Creation of problems focusing on mi

[Research Activities] Conduct research on formative assessment in CS, student misconceptions, innovative assessment types, and teacher experiences

• Develop and propose a framework for formative assessments in K-12 CS.
• Present the K-12 CS formative assessment framework and innovative assessment ideas at research gatherings (SIGCSE 2021, Raspberry Pi Foundation Seminar Series)
• Formative Classroom Assessment for Teachers in K-12 Computer Science (CSTA

Formative Classroom Assessment for Teachers (FCAT) is a professional development workshop series was designed to deepen teachers’ understanding of how to adapt and use formative assessment in K-12 computer science classrooms. In this multi-part series, we present a synthesis of research and many examples, plus interactive activities to practice evaluating, adapting, and responding to assessment items. Examples cover content related to algorithms and programming, with examples across grades 3-12. 

These workshops were designed as professional development (PD) in-a-box — i.e., resources that can easily be used and adapted by others to facilitate high quality PD in their own regions and contexts. We recommend implementing as a series of four sessions of approximately 90 minutes each over the course of one month (e.g., weekly) or one semester (e.g., monthly):

1. What/Why/How of Formative Assessment
2. Quality Quizzes for Quick Feedback
3. Tackling Misconceptions Through Formative Assessment
4. Programming Project-based Assessment

Session Design

Each session includes direct instruction synthesizing research on assessment and guided practice with many examples of assessment items. Additionally, there are breakouts for practice of the target skills in small groups. Finally, there is suggested “homework” to apply the learning from each session and preview other resources. Subsequent sessions begin by reviewing this homework to provide some continuity across sessions.

Objectives

• Understand what, why, and how regarding formative assessment.
• Expand types of formative assessment used, and understand the value of different types.
• Evaluate assessment items using a framework or set of design features.
• Identify common misconceptions and select items to diagnose learning.
• Plan how to respond to assessment results.

Session Resources

1: What/Why/How of Formative Assessment

Objectives

• Understand what, why, and how regarding formative assessment.
• Evaluate assessment items using a framework or set of design features.
• Align assessment items to granular learning goals.

Resources

• Slide Deck (embedded above)
• Recording: 60-minute pilot session 
• Resource: Granular Learning Goals of Key Concepts in K-12 Programming
• Breakout Activity: Identifying Granular Learning Goals for Specific Assessment Items
• Readings (for Homework):
  • Feedback Through Formative Check-Ins by Grover, S., Sedgwick, V., & Powers, K. (2020)
  • Framework for Formative Assessment in K-12 CS by Grover, S. (2021) | slides

LEADERSHIP TEAM

Shuchi Grover
(PI)

Bryan Twarek
(Co-PI)

Shivram V
(Co-PI)

TEACHER PARTNERS

	Padmaja Bandaru
	Daniel Moix
	Kelly Powers
	Vicky Sedgwick
	David Petty
	Danielle Bodine

We’re also grateful for the participation of Mobile CSP (Pauline Lake & Jennifer Rosato), Code.org (Daniel Schneider), UTeachCS, Darci Santella, and other members of the CSForAll community.