Carla Evans
Senior Associate, Center for Assessment
United States
Dr. Carla Evans is a Senior Associate at the National Center for the Improvement of Educational Assessment (Center for Assessment). She is actively engaged with projects that attempt to bridge the gap between classroom assessment and large-scale assessment.
Carla supports states in designing and implementing assessment reforms, especially those that rely on performance assessments. For example, she worked with others from the Center for Assessment as the lead technical consultants on New Hampshire’s Performance Assessment of Competency Education (PACE) innovative assessment system, with the Michigan Assessment Consortium on classroom performance assessments, and currently with the Hawai‘i Department of Education on culturally responsive performance assessments and implementation supports. She is also working in multiple states to support the design and implementation of balanced assessment systems with a particular focus on scaling and sustaining assessment literacy initiatives with K-12 teachers and school/district leaders.
Carla’s research focuses on the impacts and implementation of assessment and accountability policies on teaching and learning. She is especially interested in policy research related to balanced assessment systems, culturally responsive assessment, performance-based assessments, and assessment literacy.
Carla is publishing two books in 2024: one volume with Scott Marion, Understanding Instructionally Useful Assessment, and an NCME volume co-edited with Catherine Taylor, Culturally Responsive Assessment in Classrooms and Large-Scale Contexts: Theory, Research and Practice.
Carla has published numerous articles in peer-reviewed journals and regularly presents her research at the American Educational Research Association (AERA), National Council for Measurement in Education (NCME), and the National Conference on Student Assessment (NCSA). Carla is also a frequent blogger on the Center's website and has created a set of open-source Classroom Assessment Literacy modules as well as resources on assessing 21st century skills.
Carla received a Ph.D. from the University of New Hampshire with a concentration in Assessment, Evaluation, and Policy. She was awarded numerous honors, including AERA Division H’s Outstanding Dissertation Award, UNH Dissertation Year Fellowship, UNH Graduate Research Assistantships, and UNH Education Department Outstanding Graduate Student Paper Award. Carla serves on AERA’s Classroom Assessment SIG leadership team and as an adjunct professor of education at the University of New Hampshire. Carla began her career as an elementary classroom teacher for almost a decade.
Keynote
Many educators, parents, and business leaders alike talk about the importance of teaching and assessing students’ 21st century competencies. These competencies are essential for students to develop to prepare them for the future. Yet, if determining competence is fundamentally an assessment decision, then we must ask: What is the role of classroom assessment in improving the teaching and learning of 21st century competencies?
In this keynote, Dr. Evans will weave research-based findings and practical advice to discuss the role of classroom assessment in improving the teaching and learning of 21st century competencies. In particular, she will discuss the following topics:
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What is assessment and what is the role of assessment in a classroom activity system?
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How can assessment improve the of 21st century competencies (a focus on the teacher)?
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How can assessment improve the of 21st century competencies (a focus on the student)?
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What research-based principles and practices should inform the design of classroom assessments to support these improvement efforts?
The Role of Classroom Assessment in Improving the Teaching and Learning of 21st Century Competencies
Expert Workshop
Participants who join this hands-on master class session will focus on two learning outcomes:
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Applying an evidence-centered design framework to select, adapt, develop, or evaluate classroom assessments of 21st century competencies.
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Using research-based continuums that describe different levels of sophistication related to students’ 21st century competencies to provide feedback to students and inform next instructional moves.
The first part of this master class will provide more details about the evidence-centered design framework introduced in the keynote address. Participants will work collaboratively to brainstorm (a) the claims they want to make about what students know and can do related to the 21st century competencies in a holistic education context, and (2) the evidence that would convince them and others that students can apply the 21st century competencies in a specific context. Dr. Evans will then share example classroom instructional/ assessment tasks and activities. Participants will evaluate the extent to which these example classroom tasks and activities would elicit evidence of those 21st century competencies, how they might be adapted for their context, and brainstorm additional classroom tasks and activities that could be used as informal or more formal assessments with their students.
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The second part of this master class will begin with a presentation on what is known from the research literature about students’ development of 21st century competencies. Example research-based continuums will be shared. Participants will then work in small groups to discuss how the continuums could be used in their contexts and settings to give specific, meaningful, and actionable feedback to students and inform instructional next steps. The master class will end with an opportunity for participants to reflect on their learning and decide on an action plan for applying the learning in their classroom or school.