Assessment and reporting in support of learning What do teachers need to know

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Assessment Reporting Conference Margaret
Forster - ACER Keynote Address 2
21 October 2005Park Hyatt, Melbourne
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Assessment and ReportingWhat do we need to
understand?

• Margaret Forster

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understand for what purpose ?

• to enrich teaching and learning experiences
• to report effectively to parents

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understand for what purpose?

• to enrich teaching and learning experiences
• to report effectively to parents
• to better support learning

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1 the implications of research into learning
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1 the implications of research into learning

• What does the research into how children learn
  tell us?
• Bransford, Brown and Cocking (2000) How
  people learn brain, mind, experience and school.
  National Academy Press.

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1 the implications of research into learning

• learning is enhanced when

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1 the implications of research into learning

• learning is enhanced when
• teachers identify and work from individuals
  current knowledge, skills and beliefs

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1 the implications of research into learning

• learning is enhanced when
• teachers identify and work from individuals
  current knowledge, skills and beliefs
• it leads to deeper understandings of concepts
  and their applicability

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1 the implications of research into learning

• learning is enhanced when
• teachers identify and work from individuals
  current knowledge, skills and beliefs
• it leads to deeper understandings of concepts
  and their applicability
• decision makers are able to monitor and act on
  feedback about learning

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1 the implications of research into learning

• 1 Learning is enhanced when teachers
  identify and work from individuals current
  knowledge, skills and beliefs.

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1 the implications of research into learning

• Implication for assessment reporting?
• Assessment and reporting must provide
  information about where students are in their
  learning.

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1 the implications of research into learning

• ? Assessment and reporting must be based on a
  clear understanding and circumscription of the
  area of
• learning against which achievement will be
  assessed and reported.

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1 the implications of research into learning

• ? We need to define and clarify each of the
  domains/areas against which achievement will be
  reported.

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1 the implications of research into learning

• ? We need to develop a
• research-based understanding of what it means
  to make progress within that area.

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Civics
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1 the implications of research into learning

• 2 Learning is enhanced when it leads to the
  development of deeper understandings of
  concepts and their applicability.

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1 the implications of research into learning

• Implications for assessment reporting?
• Assessment and reporting will be focused in
  part on the depth of a students understanding.

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1 the implications of research into learning

• ? Assessment and reporting is likely to draw
  on different and more sophisticated assessment
  approaches.

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• example understanding layers of meaning

Lovely Mosquito Lovely
mosquito, attacking my arm As quiet and still as
a statue, Stay right where you are! Ill do you
no harm I simply desire to pat you. Just
puncture my veins and swallow your fill For
nobodys going to swot you. Now, lovely mosquito,
stay perfectly still A SWIPE! and a SPLAT! and I
GOT YOU!
Doug MacLeod
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• Does the writer think the mosquito is
  lovely?Explain your answer.

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1 the implications of research into learning

• 3 Learning is enhanced by the ability to
  monitor learning so that appropriate action can
  be identified.

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1 the implications of research into learning

• Implications for assessment reporting?
• Assessment feedback and formal reporting must
• allow students teachers and parents to monitor
  learning over time and to be benchmarked against
  appropriate points of reference.

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1 the implications of research into learning

• What do we need to understand?
• We need to understand growth and recognise
  evidence of growth

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challenges
1 the implications of research into learning

• What do teachers understand?
• ( UK example)
• What do students focus on?
• ( UK research, US and Canadian experience)

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2 the role of assessment methods
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2 the role of assessment methods

• Assessment is a vehicle for gathering evidence
  about student learning.

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assessment methods
2 the role of assessment methods

• Performances
• Projects
• Products
• Paper and pen
• Portfolios

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External Teacher Student Peer (self) Perf
ormances XX Projects XX Products
XX Paper pen XX Portfolios XX
XX
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3 the context of a standards frameworks
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content standards
3 the context of a standards framework

• Content standards answer the question
• What do we expect students to know,
  understand, and be able to do?

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3 the context of a standards framework

• Content standards describe learning
  outcomes
• the things we watch for, the things we can
  observe, and the things we can collect evidence
  about to demonstrate what students know and can
  do as a result of their learning.

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Descriptions of developing speaking ability
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performance standards
3 the context of a standards framework

• Performance standards answer the question
• How adequate at a particular age, grade or
  stage of schooling is a students performance?

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a standards framework
3 the context of a standards framework

• makes explicit what we value
• defines the direction of growth
• provides a frame of reference
• for shared communication
• against which achievement and progress can be
  mapped and monitored over time

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3 the context of a standards framework

• implications for teaching ?
• understanding the relationship between the
  framework and the curriculum

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3 the context of a standards framework

• implications for assessment?
• understanding the paradigm shift
• a framework independent of the measuring
  instrument

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a simple idea
3 the context of a standards framework

• instruments (provided they are adequately
  calibrated) are superficial interchangeable
  unimportant in themselves

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3 the context of a standards framework

• implications for reporting?
• understanding that reporting is based on an
  inferential process

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a challenge
3 the context of a standards framework

• Do teachers understand how to draw
• an inference to a standards framework?
• -- confusing recording with reporting
• -- beginning, consolidating, established

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3 the context of a standards framework

• BCE judgements did not in themselves indicate
  where on the CSFII continuum a student was
  located. Most students who were rated
  consolidating Level 4 would have been rated
  established for Level 3, and beginning Level
  5.

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3 the context of a standards framework

• Beginning, Consolidating and Established were
  best thought of as ratings made in relation to
  each CSF level, and not as an indication of a
  students location on the underlying standards
  framework.

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4 student achievement
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Year 3
Year 5
600
500
400
Reading
300
200
100
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4 student achievement

• that teachers believe that
• every learner is on an individual path of
  development and is capable of further progress

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5 the larger school context
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5 the larger school context

• In elementary schools, children move from one
  teacher to the next every year. Every June we
  trash a years worth of relationships built
  between children and their teacher, and we throw
  away all the knowledge the teacher has gained
  about what each child needs and can do.

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5 the larger school context

• Each year, we tell every child and teacher to
  start over again -- even though we know that the
  teachers knowledge of and caring for the child
  is the single most important variable in
  determining the school success of many children,
  particularly those who are most vulnerable.
• Marshak, D. (2003). No Child left Behind A
  Foolish Race into the Past. Phi Delta Kappan,
  vol 85, no 3.

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5 the larger school context

• Implications of a standards framework for
  teaching ?
• confidence trust
• share expertise
• reduce workload
• to better support learning

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5 the larger school context

• Implications of a standards framework for
  assessment reporting?
• valid and reliable information
• that can be supported by evidence
• descriptive information
• comparative information
• over time
• in relation to expectations

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6 the importance of leadership
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6 the importance of leadership

• Implications for assessment reporting?
• providing a focus
• making time/ encouraging discussion/
  collaboration
• providing tools that support best practice

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We need to understand.

• the implications of research into learning
• the role of assessment methods
• the context of a standards framework
• student achievement
• the larger school context
• the importance of leadership