Assessment Development in Professional Learning Communities

This document is a guide focused on the development of assessments within Professional Learning Communities (PLCs). It outlines various scenarios that illustrate what constitutes effective and ineffective assessment practices in a PLC context. The guide details five rounds of assessment development, emphasizing the importance of aligning assessments with essential standards and providing feedback to students. Each round highlights different approaches taken by teams in creating assessments, including the timing of assessment creation, collaboration among team members, and the structure of feedback provided to students. The document stresses the need for assessments to be designed prior to instruction to enhance teaching effectiveness and student learning outcomes. It also addresses common pitfalls, such as relying on publisher assessments without proper alignment to learning targets, and the necessity of planning formative assessments to track student progress throughout the unit.