Putting the learner at the heart of assessment

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Putting the learner at the heart of assessment

• Sue Horner, Director of Curriculum
• Qualifications and Curriculum Development Agency
• 12 November 2009
• Scottish Qualifications Authority

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The archaeological dig Year 1
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The changing picture in England

• reduction in external testing
• development of teacher assessment systems
• need to integrate curriculum and assessment
• professionalising assessment in schools

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Government objectives

• Every child knows how they are doing, and
  understand what they need to do to improve
• Every teacher is equipped to make effective
  judgements about learners attainment and how to
  plan to improve it
• Every school has systems for making regular,
  useful and accurate assessments
• Every parent knows how their child is doing, what
  they need to do to improve, and how they can
  support the child and their teachers

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• The research indicates that improving learning
  through assessment depends on five, deceptively
  simple, key factors
• the provision of effective feedback to pupils
• the active involvement of pupils in their own
  learning
• adjusting teaching to take account of the results
  of assessment
• a recognition of the profound influence
  assessment has on the motivation and self-esteem
  of pupils, both of which are crucial influences
  on learning
• the need for pupils to be able to assess
  themselves and understand how to improve.
• Assessment for learning beyond the black box,
  Assessment Reform Group (University of Cambridge
  School of Education), 1999

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Working towards good assessment
BETT, Thursday 15 January 2009
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QCDAs Principles for assessment

• the learner is at the heart of assessment
• assessment needs to provide a view of the whole
  learner
• assessment is integral to teaching and learning
• assessment includes reliable judgements about how
  learners are doing, related, where appropriate,
  to national standards

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Current priorities

• Increasing the focus on pupil progress rather
  than achievement linked to age-related
  expectations
• Raising the status of teacher assessment
• Expanding the assessment repertoire
• a wider range of assessment evidence
• learners involvement in their assessment
• Personal, Learning and Thinking Skills (PLTS)
• more accessible and relevant information for
  parents

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Developing a framework for teacher assessment

• To help schools and teachers

make decisions about what, when and how to assess
recognise and make use of a range of evidence
use the information effectively for maximum impact
use assessment techniques efficiently - reducing
specific/separate assessment activities
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Making a difference
Evaluation of impact - progress of pupils
- enhancement of curriculum -
improvements in pedagogy
Ownership by teachers
Involvement of parents and learners
Continuing development and responsiveness to
changing local and national priorities
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Assessment overview
Day to day Learning objectives made explicit and shared with students Students engaged in their learning and given immediate feedback In class adjustment of lessons to take account of students needs
Periodic Broader view of progress across subject for teacher and learner Use of national standards in the classroom Improvements to medium-term curriculum planning
Transitional Formal recognition of students' achievement Reported to parents/carers and next teacher(s) Uses external texts or tasks
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Assessing Pupils Progress (APP)

• Tools to support periodic assessment judgements

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Assessing Pupils Progress
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Features of APP assessments

• Independence and choice pupils demonstrating
  what they know and can do
• Wide range of evidence could be drawn from work
  across the curriculum and beyond school
• Use of assessment guidelines which unpack
  National Curriculum level descriptions
• Standards files - annotated evidence of pupils
  learning

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APP further support
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Changing assessment systems
BETT, Thursday 15 January 2009
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Challenges

• Five challenges from QCDAs Articulating
  assessment pilot

establishing coherence
gaining involvement
building consistency
securing manageability
achieving impact
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Establishing coherence

• Hazelwick School, West Sussex
• Connecting curriculum, teaching and assessment
• assessment moved them towards a more active and
  participatory approach to science in year 7
• focused on developing an individual learner's
  science skills rather than the coverage of
  subject content
• this led to fairly significant changes in work
  schemes and teachers planning

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Gaining involvement

• St Josephs Catholic Primary School, Warwickshire
• Leading whole-school change
• assessment development to improve the standard of
  childrens writing
• involving children in their writing targets
• parents to support their child at home in
  achieving these targets.
• the success of the project so far is rooted in
  the effectiveness of a working party that
  represents all stakeholders, supported by the
  school leadership team.
• a vision statement provided a shared
  understanding of what the school set out to
  achieve

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Ensuring consistency

• Swinton Fitzwilliam Primary School, Rotherham
• Improving the consistency of assessment
• assessment for learning as a basis to improve
  standards
• planning for, developing and assessing learners
  personal learning and thinking skills (PLTS)
• enhance assessment practice within the classroom
  using video and audio technology
• ensure that evidence-gathering was manageable and
  useful, happened at the point of learning and
  involved the learners themselves
• all school staff contributed through discussion,
  trialling methods and feedback

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Securing manageability

• Durrington High School, West Sussex
• Capturing assessment evidence
• learning conversations are an integral part of
  weekly catch-up meetings
• learners are encouraged to take responsibility
  for the collection of evidence
• started to use digital video cameras, still
  cameras and audio recordings as well as
  paper-based notes to record progress

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Achieving impact

• Easebourne Primary School, West Sussex
• Broadening the assessment dialogue
• opportunities for pupils to self-, peer- and
  group-assess
• the staff came to the view that assessment based
  on skills that could be transferred across all
  subjects would be both far more manageable and
  have a greater impact on the childrens learning.
• based their approach on the four Rs resilience,
  reflection, relationships and resourcefulness
• used a version of Apgar to capture the progress
  individual children made in developing the four
  Rs on a residential trip

'It quickly became clear that the use of Apgar
and its creation of a new dialogue between
everyone at Easebourne (children, teachers,
parents, carers and governors) was going to
revolutionise the way we think about learning.'
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Working towards a new assessment landscape
BETT, Thursday 15 January 2009
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Assessment for pupils and teachers
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Making the most of current opportunities

• Ensuring consistency of standards
• Keeping assessment relevant, up-to-date and
  responsive to developments in curriculum and
  pedagogy
• Expanding the repertoire of types of assessment

Putting the learner at the heart of assessment
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