Student-Led Assessment

By now most students will be more self-sufficient when it comes to self-assessment and setting new goals and criteria. Their portfolios (artifacts of learning) will help them see their growth and identify new goals. Continue to co-construct success criteria. Be sure to view their portfolios and completed forms prior to the conference.
Some will need help with modeling questions, but hand off questioning to them. Students will be moving at different rates so be sure not to stigmatize the slower movers. Faster movers may need additional challenges. Starr supplies sample mid-year self-assessment inventories along with five pages of sample conference notes from her students.

Starr feels that allowing students to answer questions about their growth is a more robust way to access their growth than a final exam. She provides a pacing chart to help them prepare along with agreed upon success criteria. She also gives them links to the relevant standards and the items they need to show growth on. They need to show they have met their goals and grade themselves.
Here is the link to a student conference that you can show your students as an exemplar. Students should practice their conferences with peers, which will also help the peer, and record their practice sessions to review. In Starr’s school senior portfolio presentations are defended in front of a committee. Teachers, administrators, and other students make up the committees and parents and other friends can attend. (Doug: This reminds me of my doctoral defense.)

The kind of conferences you have with students should be similar to the parent conferences where the student leads the show. As students explain what they have learned with evidence and what their next goals are, you can encourage students and parents to have these kinds of conversations at home. While some schools still exclude students from parent conferences, it makes no sense as today, parents have online access to student achievement.
Students tend to take this process seriously and can practice with the help of peers like they do for the conferences describe previously in this book. By encouraging students to routinely reflect on their learning you also promote practicing for both kinds of conferences. As they demonstrate their own learning in ways that are meaningful and relevant. They will also internalize the value of a growth mindset. See my summary of Mindset by Carol Dweck.

As a teacher you should maintain your own digital portfolio. This will help you relate to what your students are doing and it may come in handy if you wish to pursue another job in the field of education be it teaching at another school or making a move to an administrative position. Starr’s website functions as a portfolio as it contains achievements such as publications, conference presentations, and praise.
In addition to your own portfolio, you should consider posting samples of your students’ work and some of your best lesson plans. At the end of this fine book you will find 33 pages of information and forms related to the main body of the text. Thanks Starr for this valuable resource.

Starr is the COO of Mastery Portfolio, an EdTech start-up, and a veteran educator. She has worked as the director of humanities for West Hempstead Public Schools, in West Hempstead, NY. She has long been a proponent of throwing out grades and having students focus on developing skills and demonstrating growth. She has an advanced leadership certification from SUNY New Paltz. She has presented all around the US and in many countries and has authored or coauthored many books including From Teacher to Leader, Teaching Mythology Exposed, Helping Teachers Create Visionary Classroom Perspective, and Feedback in the Classroom: Empowering Students to Be the Experts. She is also a proud mother. You can email her at mssachstein@gmail.com and follow he on Twitter (X) at @mssackstein.