Design-Based Research: The Ongoing Assessment Project (OGAP)

Authors: Robert Laird, Marge Petit, Stephanie Ratmeyer, Douglas Harris

The Vermont Mathematics Partnership's Ongoing Assessment Project (OGAP) is a research-based formative assessment instructional intervention in mathematics. OGAP focuses on fractions, multiplicative reasoning, and proportionality in grades 2-8. It synthesizes mathematics education research, and features strategies and tools for gathering formative information about student learning to inform effective instructional decisions. OGAP has been developed through the Vermont Mathematics Partnership (VMP) in collaboration with Marge Petit Consulting, a national advisory panel, and a design team of educators and researchers, primarily in Vermont.  To date, hundred of teachers and thousands of students in Vermont, Alabama and Michigan have been involved in the development or use of OGAP resources and tools.

OGAP was initially designed to address important findings that VMP project planners uncovered as they interviewed educators and observed mathematics instruction in VMP target schools during the pre-implementation phase of the project. Findings at that time included:

• Teachers rarely assessed student understanding prior to instruction and instead assumed that students had adequate prior knowledge to be successful in their new learning. If students had difficulty learning it was frequently attributed to low ability or other innate deficiencies.
• Few teachers used ongoing, formative assessment to monitor student learning of mathematics concepts during lessons or units of study.  Many assumed that students understood the material that was covered, basing that assumption on the responses of just a few students. Teachers were therefore surprised when students performed poorly on end-of-unit or end-of-year assessments.
• Most educators and administrators were unaware of the research about how students learn specific mathematics concepts, or the common errors, preconceptions and misconceptions that may interfere with students' readiness for new learning.

To address these findings, VMP convened a statewide committee for the purpose of identifying tools or strategies that could help teachers gather information about student understanding which can be used to modify instruction as students are learning. OGAP grew out of this work.

The Vermont Mathematics Partnership is a targeted Math and Science Partnership established in 2002 and funded by the National Science Foundation and the US Department of Education.