NWIESC Beyond the Right Answer: Performance Assessment as Preparation for ILEARN ( Part 1)

This is a 2 part series. Participants will be able to attend Part 1 or Part 2 as stand alone events or register for both. Click Here if you would like to learn more about Part 2 of this series-From Points to Proficiency: Scoring Tools for Performance Assessment and ILEARN.
Date: November 10, 2026
Presenter: Theresa Morris with MPASS Education-
Theresa Morris is Co-Founder and President of MPASS Education and has spent 30+ years designing mathematics curriculum and assessment for K–12 students. She was a lead author of the Smarter Balanced (SBAC) performance tasks, and she developed mathematics performance assessments at Stanford’s Center for Assessment, Learning, and Equity. Her performance-task design and accessibility framework is used for teacher training at Stanford and the Curtis Center. She led Building Educator Assessment Literacy (BEAL) with WestEd across 20 states and designed the performance assessment framework for the Texas Performance Assessment Consortium, a 44-district consortium. Her career includes classroom teaching, service as an award-winning district Director of Mathematics, and assessment consulting for CTB/McGraw-Hill, Smarter Balanced, Discovery Education, and the College Board. MPASS Education is based in Central Indiana and builds real-world, theme-based mathematics resources for kindergarten through grade 12, including Math Mondays — a free weekly differentiated K–12 math series at mpasseducation.com/math-mondays.
Registration Deadline: November 3, 2026
Time: 9:00am-3:00pm CT
PGP Points: 5
Location: Northwest Location TBD
Member Price: Single- $160 / Team of 3- $320
Non-Member Price: Single- $240 / Team of 3- $480
Facilitator: Laura Unsicker
Description:
Performance assessment is not one more thing to add to an already full year. It is how you find out what students canactually do with the mathematics you have taught them — and it is the kind of thinking ILEARN asks students to do.
This session starts with the practical questions: what a performance assessment is and is not, the varieties available and what each is good for, and how to facilitate one in a real classroom with real time constraints. Participants examine how performance assessments connect to the demands of ILEARN, then get concrete about incorporating them into the curriculum they already teach — at any grade level, without rewriting a unit. High school participants connect the same work to the state’s expectation that students see mathematics applied in the real world and tied to careers, and to the reasoning the SAT and Indiana’s diploma requirements ask of them.
Participants will:
– work through performance assessments the way their students will, then examine the design decisions underneath them
– compare the varieties of performance assessment and aligns to instructional purpose
– make connections between performance assessment thinking and what ILEARN expects of students
– map at least one performance assessment into a unit they are already teaching this year
Take-home materials:
– a full performance assessment, written for grades 6–7 as-is and adaptable from grade 3 through Algebra I
– a short, stand-alone performance assessment for their own grade band — 3–5, 6–8, or high school
– scoring guides for every task received
Audience:
- Mathematics Teachers, Grades 3-12
- Instructional Coaches
- Math Leaders
- Co-teachers
Please Review our Cancellation Policy.
