AFG Awardees
Meet the R&D Teams Working to Transform Assessment for Black and Latinx Learners
LiberatED
LiberatED’s overarching goal is to co-develop an inventory of liberatory practices (ILP) with Black and Latinx youth and middle school educators with the hope of cultivating the conditions for liberation in classrooms throughout the U.S. and beyond. In addition to the ILP, we aim to develop three accompanying resources: an associated educator reflection guide, a companion student feedback form, and an ILP protocol (i.e., an instruction manual for educators, who wish to implement the practices in the ILP).
The Center for Whole-Child Education
The Center for Whole-Child Education (CWE) Design Inventories (WCDIs) are a suite of measurement tools designed to support healthy, whole-child development in educational settings. Composed of school, classroom, and student level WCDI, the inventories include a comprehensive set of evidence-based indicators that represent the degree to which existing systems and practices support whole-child learning and thriving. Through the proposed project, CWE will partner with the Institute for Applied Research in Youth Development (IARYD) at Tufts University to rigorously test the latest versions of the WCDIs and work with partner schools and their key stakeholders – teachers, students, and administrators – to continue learning and refining the WCDI for broad use as an ecological assessment tool.The key research objective of the project is to test the measurement and statistical properties of the WCDI assessments (including their structure, reliability, and validity) to develop evaluation tools that are sensitive to change over time and can be used by educators to evaluate and reflect on the context and conditions of their respective school’s alignment with whole-child design.
Educator and Student Wellbeing Positive Feedback Loop
EmpowerK12, along with the George Washington Center for Health and Health Care in Schools, School Talk, The New Teacher Project, and Mathematica, will develop a suite of wellbeing assessment tools that investigate how social and emotional wellbeing, including identity development, of students ages 8 -13 and their educators influence each other. They will utilize both comprehensive seasonal surveys and near real-time check-ins that will provide an actionable, supports-aligned framework for educators and learners.
Empower K12
Adult Social Emotional Learning Assessment (ASELA)
ASELA is a social-emotional wellbeing assessment tool that seeks to increase awareness of how educator strengths may be utilized in the learning environment to support the academic and social emotional well-being of Black and Latinx youth ages 8-13. As the first part of their work, this team will identify key domains of social-emotional learning across educators, from general and special education, to content area and related service educators in order to determine the elements needed for any comprehensive educator-focused assessment of social and emotional well-being.
Asset-based Intersectional Identities Among Latinx, Black, and Indigenous Youth: Centering Student Voice to Inform Teacher Practice and Research
Imagine if co-design happens with the specific needs of a school district from the start? This highly collaborative team will be developing and validating asset-based assessment tools geared toward the multiple identities of Latinx, Black, and Indigenous students with relation to ethnicity/race, disability, academic self-concept, critical consciousness, and belonging. These tools will inform teachers’ own practices and provide additional evidence on the benefits of asset-based pedagogy on students’ identity development and outcomes. Through the reformulation and expansion of existing measures, this new tool will provide momentary information on the activation of intersecting identities across settings.
Pennsylvania State University | Tucson Unified School District | North Carolina State University | Stanford University
Centering Student Experience for Student Impact
The Student Experience Survey (SES) provides teachers, school leaders, and community members more insight on how students experience their learning environments and see themselves as learners. Students, particularly those from communities that have been oppressed by systemic inequity, will be more engaged with their learning and will show evidence of growth in academic skills. The survey will provide critical information to educators that supports their implementation of culturally responsive practices. Through a rapid visualization tool, educators are able to increase and expand their use of data metrics through utilizing information that is more representative of the goals that students and their communities have defined as important to their success.
Measuring Inclusive Constructs of Mathematics Identity (MICMI)
The Measuring Inclusive Constructs of Mathematics Identity (MICMI) provides timely information to educators on the intersecting identity created when race, gender, and disciplinary belonging converge—so that greater opportunities for learning and engagement are provided to preadolescent and adolescent girls. Co-design of the MICMI starts with Black girls as they identify the intersectional assets needed for more effective math learning that transcend a physical space or curriculum. The MICMI will provide actionable insights to educators, caregivers, and the girls’ themselves as they navigate the concurrent developmental trajectories associated with race, girlhood, and mathematics identities.
Vanderbilt University | Embraced Wisdom Resource Group
Informed by, Validated by Black Voices: Expanding and Validating an Assessment Tool for Culturally Affirming Instruction
The Culturally Affirming Climate Survey (CACS) for grades 3-6 provides timely information as to the racial and cultural experiences of Black children and other children of color, in order to create culturally affirming learning environments. An extension of this survey for grades 7-12 provides an ecological assessment of the learning environment, presenting accessible and actionable information for schools and communities. The CACS survey for grades 3-6 will be developed by a collaborative team of Black parent researchers, Village of Wisdom, and Discriminology. The team is committed to assessing equity and cultural affirmation and ensuring that assessment is informed by the voices of those with everyday school experiences.
