Jon Wilson

MEDT 7476
Assessment Implementation-Create Your Own Civil War Compromise
1. Client Information:
-Clients Name: Misty Morgan
-Clients Organization-Newton High School
-Clients E-mail Address-morgan.misty@newton.k12.ga.us
2. Actual Assessment:
Performance Task Create Your Own Compromise-Prevent The Civil War
Title
Timeline Three class periods in the media center
Standard SSUSH 8-Growing North/South divisions and sectionalism
Prior to Class Annotate and complete divided notes on SSUSH 8
Day 1 -Sit with your pre-assigned partner
-View video as a class on North/South tensions in the wake the
Missouri Compromise, Compromise of 1850, and Bleeding Kansas
-Take notes during video
-After the video, begin researching your pre-assigned state and its
positions on various topics of the Antebellum time period. Topics
include (but are not limited to) politics, economy, slavery, and
states rights
-Begin forming an outline detailing your states positions as well as
potential ideas for a compromise to save the Union.
Day 2 -Sit with your partner
-Complete your research and the outline of your compromise
-Once research and outlining is complete, create your Prezi or
Weebly which will be presented to the class. Requirements for the
Prezi/Weebly can be found beneath the timeline
Day 3 -Sit with your partner
-You will have 10 minutes to make adjustments or finish your
presentation. When finished, e-mail the link to the presentation to
me
-Each pair will present their compromise to the class
-While one pair is presenting, the rest of the class will be taking
notes on their proposal
-Following all of the proposals, students will vote on which
compromise they feel is the best to preserve the Union
Prezi/Weebly -Title with students names
Requirements -A slide or page for each portion of your compromise (i.e.-a slide for
 your economic proposal, a slide for your political proposal, etc.)
-Each slide must contain a concise explanation of your idea as well
as an image, infographic, video, or some other visual to demonstrate
your idea.
-A summary slide which gives the essential elements of your
compromise.
Purpose The purpose of this assignment is to assess your understanding of
SSUSH 8 as well as help you gain a better understanding of the
political process during the 19th century and the impact of
sectionalism during that era.
Grading See attached rubric for how this assignment will be graded.
Criteria For Success Your performance needs to include historically plausible elements
concerning North/South divisions
Your work will be judged by peers (other members of Congress) and a
designated rubric.
Your product must meet the following standards SSUSH 8 and the rubric
which is given out
A successful result will a compromise agreed upon by Congress to
preserve the Union

3. The Measurement Tool:

Fails to Meet Below Meets Exceeds
Expectations- Expectations-2 Expectations-3 Expectations-4
1
Organization Project is Project is loosely Project is Project is effectively
disorganized organized with effectively and clearly organized
with no logical elements in some organized with a with a logical
sequence or order but not logical sequencing sequencing and
organization properly grouped. and grouping to grouping which is
and no outline The outline does elements. Project clearly explained and
is submitted. not match the generally follows defined. Project and
organization of the submitted outline match up
the presentation. outline. perfectly.

Content No Compromise Compromise is Compromise is clearly

compromise proposal is not clearly stated and is stated and explained
proposal is clear or original original work and with original work and
made and work and some elements such as elements such as
elements such elements such as imagery as present. imagery are present
as imagery imagery are throughout the project.
does not missing.
appear.
Accuracy The proposal is Some elements of The proposal is The proposal is
not historically the proposal are mostly historically entirely historically
accurate and historically accurate but there accurate and there are
no attempt is accurate but there are some (few) no mistakes.
made for are notable mistakes.
accuracy. mistakes.
Presentation The project is The project is The project is The project is
not presented presented to the presented to the presented to the class
to the class as class but not class and is mostly is all elements of the
it is not complete. completed. project are complete.
complete.

4. Example of Student Work and Feedback

For the example of student work, screenshots of a groups Prezi are shown below with
commentary from the teacher. This is how students received their feedback as the teacher took
the screenshots from the presentation that was e-mailed and then added commentary to slides as
well as the rubric. Students names have been edited out of the presentation.

The title slide is fairly bland. A title is present but the slide itself is not engaging.
Goals are present and appropriate but do not provide great detail as far as an overview of how
you plan to approach the problem. There should be a point that states something to the effect of:
The Pennsylvania Compromise aims to preserve the Union through various political and
economic measures. A mission statement should be present. Additionally, a visual is not present.

Your two political compromises are good ideas but your second point could use a little fleshing
out. If you propose to balance electoral votes between slave and free states, does this mean you
are going to balance their representation in Congress? Electoral votes are determined by the
amount of representatives you have in Congress. This needs to be further explained.

It is apparent that you two put a lot of thought into your economic compromises. They are well
thought out and aim at encouraging international trade as well as limiting the impact of slavery.
Nice idea with the proposal of a law to encourage the growth of the Souths rail lines.

Your states rights slide is lacking somewhat. Your first point is a restatement of your popular
sovereignty idea from the politics slide. The second point you make was already in place at the
time of your proposed compromise and is still true today. Any territory that applies for statehood
must draft a state constitution and propose it to Congress.
The slavery slide is on the same level of your economic slide. Very well thought out will solid
explanations of the process you propose. It seems feasible and reasonable.
Adequate summary of your main points. While not providing great detail, it does give a general
overview of your main ideas from each concept. Once again, an image or visual is not present.

Fails to Meet Below Meets Exceeds

Expectations Expectations-2 Expectations-3 Expectations-4
 -1

Organizatio Project is Project is Project is Project is effectively

n disorganized loosely effectively and clearly organized
with no organized with organized with a with a logical
logical elements in logical sequencing sequencing and
sequence or some order but and grouping to grouping which is
organization not properly elements. Project clearly explained and
and no outline grouped. The generally follows defined. Project and
is submitted. outline does the submitted outline match up
not match the outline. perfectly.
organization of X-The project
the follows the outline
presentation. but there is overlap
between areas that
is not explained
(Political/states
rights)
Content No Compromise Compromise is Compromise is
compromise proposal is not clearly stated and clearly stated and
proposal is clear or is original work explained with
made and original work and elements such original work and
elements such and some as imagery as elements such as
as imagery elements such present. imagery are present
does not as imagery are X-Images not throughout the
appear. missing. present throughout project.
Accuracy The proposal Some elements The proposal is The proposal is
is not of the proposal mostly historically entirely historically
historically are historically accurate but there accurate and there are
accurate and accurate but are some (few) no mistakes.
no attempt is there are mistakes.
made for notable X-mostly
accuracy. mistakes. historically
accurate but the
date for the Tariff
of 1828 is
incorrectly states
as 1827
Presentation The project is The project is The project is The project is
not presented presented to the presented to the presented to the class
to the class as class but not class and is mostly is all elements of the
it is not complete. completed. project are complete.
complete. X-the presentation to
 the class was well
done as you two did a
great job of
explaining your
points and answering
questions

Grade-13/16 possible points=81.25

5. Report of Findings
Overall, the project did not go as smoothly as planned or originally envisioned. Students

had some difficulty in completing the assignment in the allotted three day period but this was

mainly due to technology issues such as malfunctioning computers and internet connections that

dropped from time to time. In some cases, students were granted extra time or permitted to work

at home to finish the projects.

There were aspects that went well during the assessment window. To begin with, students

were well prepared to engage in the assessment as they had all completed the divided notes on

standard eight. When they entered the media center, all of the students were engaged in the

assessment and in-depth, on topic conversation could be heard among all of the pairings. The use

of computer technology seemed to greatly enhance students perception of the assessment and

their engagement as well. Previously, the class had done other performance tasks but in the

classroom with books and other hard resources with slightly less engagement.

Students were able to complete the work as directed aside from the technology issues.

They were well prepped in the days leading up to the task in regards as to what was expected of

them and what the final product would look like. As the students worked on the project, there

were not many questions regarding what the final product should look like or consist of. The

only clarifications students really needed pertained more to the content of the course rather than
the product. Questions were focused more on issues of sectionalism and the needs and ideas that

various states and regions of the country held during the mid-18th century.

In regards to responses, the results were mixed and not along the lines of what was hoped

for or expected. Students took a lot of pride in creating their presentations and based upon the

work and conversations that were being held among the groups, expectations were very high.

However, it appears as though after looking at the finished products that some students took

more time in the creative aspects of their Weeblys and Prezis than they did the content aspects.

Other students were much richer in content but lacked the required visuals. While there were

several students who made As on the assignment, there were not as many assessments on the

higher end of the grade spectrum as were expected.

Now that the assessment has been completed and time for reflection has been allowed,

there are several ways in which the assessment can be improved for the next time it is

implemented in class. The first improvement is to check the technology that will be used

beforehand to ensure that it works. The technology failure did create some panic among the

students as they attempted to work on the project. Secondly, now that the project has been

completed future students will have examples to follow and model. Prior to future

implementation of the assessment, students will be shown examples from various parts of the

grading scale. They will be able to see what type of work will earn them an A, B, C, and F. These

samples can be made available as PDFs and placed in the students share drive folder for them to

look at as examples as they work through their assessments.

6. Report of Impact on Student Learning

 16

14

12

10

0
A (4.0) B (3.0) C (2.0) F (1.0)

All Male Female Regular Ed Special Ed

In the above table the overall class performance is broken down to show the distribution

of grades and then further analyzed to show the performance of males and females as well as

regular education students and special education students. In the chart, each letter grade was

given a corresponding numerical value on a 4.0 scale (A-4.0, B-3.0, C-2.0, F-1.0) to be able to

provide further descriptive statistics to analyze the data. Using a 4.0 scale, the overall class

average equaled 2.64. This average shows that a majority of the students met expectations and

fell in the upper half of the spectrum but still had much room for improvement.

After analyzing the overall class performance, the chart breaks down the class down into

smaller subgroups to provide further descriptive statistics of the class. In this US history class of

28 students, there were 15 female and 13 male students. The pairs that were assigned by the

teachers consisted of 13 male/female pairs and one female/female pair. That is why when

studying the charts breakdown of the male and female performance on this task, the two groups

are fairly evenly split throughout the study. Using the same 4.0 scale, the female average is
calculated to 2.67. The male mean for the assessment averaged at 2.61. Additionally, this

particular US history class contains seven special education students with individual educational

plans (otherwise known as IEPs). In breaking down the data between regular education and

special education students, it is shown that the average for regular education students in this

assessment comes to 2.67 on a 4.0 scale and the special education students earned an average of

2.57. It is important to note that no two special education students were paired together. Each

student with an IEP was paired with a regular education student for this assessment. Overall, it is

shown that the regular education students performed at a slightly higher average than the general

class (2.67 to 2.64) while the special education group performed slightly under the class average

(2.57 to 2.64). This is consistent with data from the rest of the semester as well previous school

years.

Overall, an analysis of the data shows that the class as a whole met expectations (in

Newton County a C average on an assignment demonstrates meeting expectations) as 24 of the

28 students, or 85.7%, passed the assessment. Of those 24 students who passed, 18 exceeded

expectations with an A or B grade (64% of the overall class). While these percentages are

encouraging, the teacher and coach still expected higher scores than the ones reported based

upon the class previous work from earlier in the course. This disparity in expectations may be

due to the timing of the assessment as it was done shortly before a holiday break. Students are

often more distracted and do not pay as much attention to detail in the days leading up to a break

from school. Additionally, the technical malfunctions that were experienced by many of the

groups may have led them to felt rushed in finishing their product, leading to oversights and

generalized work instead of the usual attention to detail.

 Taking a look at the subgroups, females generally scored higher than males on the

assessment. In the class there are 15 female students to 13 male students which, as mentioned

earlier, led to 13 groups that paired a male and female together and one group of that paired two

females. This equal pairing is a leading contributor to the consistency of scores between the two

subgroups. 84% of male students passed the assessment with 61% exceeding expectations. In the

female subgroup, 86.7% of the students passed the assessment with 66.7% exceeding

expectations. The data demonstrates that females performed at a slightly higher rate overall on

this assignment and had a greater percentage of their subgroup which exceeded expectations.

The final subgroups that were analyzed pertain to regular education and special education

students. 21 of the 28 students in the class are classified as regular education students while

seven of the 28 have IEPs and are on a special education roster. Of the 21 regular education

students 17 passed the assessment and 14 exceeded expectations, providing a passing rate of

81% and an exceeding rate of 66.7%. In regards to the special education students, 100% passed

the assessment and 57% exceeded expectations. The special education data is particularly

encouraging as this was the subgroups best performance on an assessment during the class.

7. Future Instructional Plans

After consulting with the teacher who was coached and looking through the data,

instruction for this assessment has been revised and future plans developed to help students with

this assessment in upcoming semesters. One of the struggles that was incurred during the

implementation of this assessment was that it was not planned on at the beginning of the year.

The structure of the curriculum had been shaped at the beginning of the semester and did not

include this assessment. When the assessment was proposed, it was welcomed with much
enthusiasm and excitement but it did not leave time to restructure the plans leading up to the

assessment. In the future, students will be prepared to handle this assessment over time with

other assignments designed to familiarize them with the procedure and resources which they will

use in the Civil War Compromise assessment. This includes revising instruction to meet the

needs of students who did not perform well. The areas in which they did not perform well on this

task stemmed from their unfamiliarity in using computers to do academic research and form a

presentation.

In future planning for this course and assessment, technology will be implemented in a

much more consistent manner from the beginning of the semester to allow students to grow

comfortable in using it prior to the assessment. The use of technology in the class will be

scaffold to ease students into this transition rather than tackling the entire requirements all at one

time. After discussing the assessment with the teacher, a plan is already in works to begin

introducing technology into the class as early as the first full week of school with iPads and

laptops in the classroom. Additionally, students will go to the media center once each unit to

conduct research and check out books. This will familiarize students with the media center and

its numerous electronic and bound resources.

Finally, the use of divided notes greatly aided the assessment as they allowed students to

gain a better understanding of the contents background which allowed them greater familiarity

with their topics. In the future, these notes will be loaded into a digital format which can be

accessible via the schools iPads and laptops on the share drive folder. In the units leading up to

this assessment, students will engage the divided notes in a digital format and use electronic

search engines on their device in order to find additional information to supplement the material

from the notes. In order to increase fluency in using electronic presentation tools such as Prezi
and Weebly, students will then take a key term, place, person, or concept from their notes and

create short, mini presentations. At first these presentations will be small in nature as students are

introduced to using these tools. As the semester goes on, more detail, information, and elements

of the presentations will be required. In doing this, students will be gradually introduced to the

expectations of the Civil War assessment. This is one area students struggled in this time as they

were not sure what level of detail was required of them and how to build an effective

presentation.

This assessment plan can be an effective tool to use in the classroom as it allows students

to engage social studies content in a manner they have not used in the past. Even though there

were some obstacles in this semesters implementation, using the aforementioned instruction

plans for the future, this can assessment can lead to even greater results.