The Center for Innovation in Education and Next Generation Learning Challenges invite applications to the Assessment for Learning Project. The grants will support educators to fundamentally rethink the core role(s) that assessment can play to support student attainment of deeper learning. Nearly $2 million is available for 12-15 grants. Applications are due December 10, 2015. This presentation was used in webinars on November 4 and November 12, 2015 to provide an overview of the grant opportunity to prospective applicants and respond to their questions.

1. Assessment for Learning
Project
Introduction Webinar
November 12, 2015

2. Who we are
Initiative Partners:
Center for Innovation in Education
Next Generation Learning Challenges
Design Partner: 2Revolutions
Funding Partners:
William & Flora Hewlett Foundation
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

3. The Need
1) Traditional summative assessments measure
only a small percentage of what matters most
2) Assessment is too often isolated from
instruction and conflated with accountability
3) Educators have not been prepared and
empowered to determine the most appropriate
roles for assessment that support learning

4. Goal One
Advance our understanding of
assessment’s essential roles in the
learning process, as learning models
become more personalized, less cohort-
restricted, more competency-based and
student-centered.

5. Goal One Funding Priorities
• The design and implementation of models
of on-going formative assessment and
feedback that improve learning, deepen
student agency, and increase college and
career readiness
• Demonstrations that essential intra- and
interpersonal skills and dispositions can
be taught, learned, and assessed as a
natural and necessary part of a child’s
experience in public education

6. Goal Two
Help to inform and develop crucial
enablers such as a) models of assessment
and accountability system design, b)
models of educator capacity building,
and/or c) use of technology tools, all to
advance Goal One.

7. Goal Two Funding Priorities
• The development of models that build educator capacity
to gather, interpret, and apply professional judgment of
student learning based on multiple and varied forms of
evidence across a wide range of student competencies
• The design and exploration of systems of aligned
assessment and accountability policies that embrace and
enable richer/deeper success definitions for students and
multiple, varied forms of measurement of student
progress towards those definitions
• The use of technology tools within systems of assessment
to enable educators using formative assessment and
related data to better inform instruction and a student-
centered learning experience

8. Why a “Request for Learning?”
• Promote and model a culture of continuous
learning
• A flexible structure that allows a personalized
experience for grantees and latitude over
project length and grant/budget request
• Opportunities for additional investment in
grantees demonstrating learning and
innovation that can inform their own work
and that of others

9. Design principles
• Grounded in the concepts of personalized
learning and deeper learning, with reference to
building student agency in assessment as
appropriate
• Focused on formative assessment in ways that
build from a foundation of prior learning
• Reflective of a strong vision of instruction with
clarity about how strategies and systems of
assessments support better instructional
practice

10. Design principles
• User-centric and problem-specific, illustrating
good perspective on the relationship of the
problem to the system within which it operates
• Designed to be transformational versus
incremental with the potential to be scalable
and contribute to the broader learning around
innovative systems of assessment

11. Is this a fit for you?
• Public school, CMO, LEA, SEA, or non-profit partnering
directly with schools
• Demonstrated commitment to assessment FOR learning
• Readiness to design, test, study, refine innovations in
practice
• Eagerness to learn and grow, not simply scale current
practice
• Keen awareness of systems-level implications for impact
• Passionate to participate in learning community
• A vision with the potential to transform rather than
incrementally improve assessment for learning

12. Supports
Learning Resources
Communication
Community of Practice
Talent & Technical Support
Potential for Additional Funding
Expectations
Participate in community of
practice.
Attend all ALP convenings in
person.
Openly share all tools and learning.
Respond to formative feedback.
Share learning through blogs,
interim reports.
Supports, Expectations

13. Grant specifics
• 12-15 grants, duration of 6-24 months
• Initial awards of $50,000 - $225,000
• Additional technical support from pool
of national TA providers
• Potential for follow-on grants

14. Criteria for review
Ideas: Innovative idea(s) that address core challenges in
assessment for learning, aligned to our funding priorities
Learning: A clearly defined problem, a testable hypothesis, a
plan for testing the hypothesis and communicating what
you’ve learned
Impact: The potential to further understanding and advance
practice at multiple levels of the system, directly addressing
the funding priorities
Readiness: The right team, with the dispositions of learners
and innovators, that can already demonstrate a level of
knowledge and/or skill, and is well-positioned to propel
learning forward
(Please review pages 10-11 of RFL for detailed criteria)

15. How to submit
Click on at:
http://nextgenlearning.org/AssessmentForLearningProject
Narrative (5-pages, Word doc)
• Address criteria on pages 10-11 of RFL
• Be explicit about how the project will address the funding priorities
• Remember to state timeframe
An artifact of your choosing
• e.g. slides, short video, illustrative graphic, sample of current work
• Should demonstrate your vision, plan, and/or capacity
• Can draw from existing work or be created for this application
A budget (Spreadsheet in .xlsx or .pdf)
• 6-24 Months, beginning in Jan 2016
• Income by source, expenses by category
• Budget narrative of <1 page, can be attached to full narrative

16. Before you apply
Visit: http://nextgenlearning.org/AssessmentForLearningProject
Closely review: RFL, Supporting Materials,
Sample Grant Agreement, Conflict of
Interest & IP Policies.
Continually check: FAQs on ALP site.

17. Timeline

18. Q&A
http://nextgenlearning.org/AssessmentForLearningProject
NGLC Program Officer: tsiddall@educause.edu