Assessment for Equity and Catholic Schools
What can we learn from connecting research on student achievement and growth during the pandemic and equity for Catholic school students?
The inequitable impacts of the pandemic on student achievement and growth as we rapidly approach the two-year mark are evident. Curriculum Associates’ fall 2021 report on grade-level proficiency found that early-grades learners generally performed at lower levels compared to prior to the pandemic, and that the percentage of students on grade level in mathematics is lower across all grade levels than before the pandemic. NWEA’s continuing research on growth trends through the first half of 2021 also suggests lower relative growth patterns for all students over a two-year period, with less growth seen for students at lower starting achievement levels. Both studies found that these gaps in achievement and growth are more pronounced for Black students, Latino students, schools in lower-income ZIP codes, and schools with higher concentration of low-income students.
Conversely, data on Catholic school academic achievement and growth during the pandemic is sparse. Publicly available analysis on Catholic school achievement and growth was rare, even prior to the pandemic, and focuses mostly on aggregate performance of all students compared to national norms (see here for examples from Charleston (West Virginia), Louisville, and Kalamazoo). It is difficult, given the lack of data, to suggest any sort of distinctive Catholic school advantage on achievement and growth during the pandemic - Julie Dallavis’s recent study comparing achievement growth between Catholic school students and public school students suggests that differences we may see could be explained by higher initial achievement levels.
The more pressing issue ought to be regarding achievement and growth trends across student subgroups within Catholic schools. Historically, NAEP data reveals that in spite of a comparative sector-level advantage nationally, achievement gaps persist for Hispanic/Latino and Black/African American students within Catholic schools at a scale nearly mirroring that of their public school counterparts. NWEA’s interactive data tool tracking achievement and growth for private and Catholic school students reveals similar gaps:
With the mid-year assessment window on the horizon, Catholic schools must embrace the opportunity to identify and respond to an increased need for accelerating student achievement and growth for all students. Historically inequitable patterns of student achievement within Catholic schools preceding the pandemic coupled with emerging research on the disparate impact of the pandemic on Black, Latino, and high-poverty student populations means that increasing the precision and impact of assessment use in Catholic schools should be a high-level priority for leaders and teachers.
To maximize the impact of assessment to increase equity for all learners, here are three things Catholic school leaders and teachers ought to keep in mind:
Be clear about the purpose of assessment and proactive in establishing clarity. Teachers and leaders must share in the understanding that the number one priority in using assessment of any kind is to improve student learning, and that assessing and analyzing is about inviting and participating in the adult learning that makes change for kids and families possible. Language that blames, deflects, or disincentivizes authenticity can hijack even the most clear cut data that could pave the way for growth. Joan Herman’s brief synthesizing research on interim assessments is a great, practical guide to what this looks like.
Establish and commit to structured, participatory protocols for analyzing the data. Daniel Venables’ book How Teachers Can Turn Data Into Action has been my go-to text for rigorous, equitable, and effective processes for using assessment data. Creating opportunities for shared learning in data analysis protocols builds the comfort needed to maximize the impact of assessment data, and creates accessibility for all educators (teachers and leaders) to engage in analyzing assessment for student learning. Data analysis should not be something that happens to teachers, but rather something they directly use and benefit from.
Identify a core strategy for shared improvement and commit to it. Ultimately, interim assessments from just part of a holistic analysis process that involves examining what is actually happening in classrooms and surfacing high-leverage practices already in place. Schools tend to juggle a variety of improvement priorities already, so to increase the potential impact of analyzing assessment for student learning, landing on one core student learning need and one core teacher practice to implement universally creates focus, coherence, and manageability. When it comes time to identifying that key leverage point, it’s worth looking at specific practices that have yielded strong results during the pandemic such as those suggested by TNTP and The Learning Accelerator.
Assessment for equity is an important mindset to embrace, given the fact that the understandable desire to return to normalcy or the pre-pandemic status quo may very well mean consequences that marginalize minority populations within Catholic school. But just as the parable of the lost sheep in the gospel of Matthew compels us to leave the ninety-nine behind to find the one that is lost, transformative and equitable use of assessment ensures that we can do the same for all students.