In-Process Measures; Getting "The Pulse" of the System
The Center for Comprehensive Reform and School Improvement's December newsletter 
focuses its message on the topic of "Using Classroom Assessments to Improve Teaching" and states "Involving the learner is at the heart of the shift from assessment that measures learning to assessment that promotes learning." Engaging students in the utilization of in-process measures or "short-cycle" assessments provides regular, ongoing feedback and sets the stage for continuous improvment. How do you check the pulse of your system without in-process measures?
In a previous blog entry, Jeff Lucas made reference to in-process measures and shared the following comment- "In the 2007 version of the Education Criteria for Performance Excellence (i.e. - Baldrige Criteria, due to be available in the next few weeks) we have added a note on "in-process measures" specifically to address a common misconception in education circles. In-process measures are not the same thing as formative assessments. They are measures of process performance at critical points that tell you how well the process is performing. This is different from chunking the overall desired outcome (summative assessment) into smaller pieces and measuring them along the way (although also an important practice). In-process measures are more often about the qualities of the inputs (e.g. - student time devoted to a task/skill, teacher selection of instructional methodologies) and outputs (e. g. - % of student work requiring higher level thinking skills, % of teacher feedback that provides actionable information about improvement). Having a well thought out set of these in-process metrics can be instrumental in identifying root causes."
How do you check the pulse of your systems? What "in-process" measures do you keep to know how a system is performing? Can educators optimize their improvement efforts without in-process measures?
