2. Key questions
What do you think assessment
in the future should be like?
2
What would you like it to do?
How would it work in your
school?
3. New ways of thinking about assessment
We wanted to work with schools to develop approaches
which:
• reshape national curriculum assessment
• recognise pupils’ personal, learning and thinking skills
• focus on concepts and processes, not just recall of facts
and procedures
• value learners’ attitudes and attributes
4. 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
5. Challenges
Five challenges from QCA’s Articulating assessment pilot
5
establishing
coherence
gaining
involvement
building
consistency
securing
manageability
achieving
impact
7. Evaluation of impact:
- progress of pupils
- enhancement of curriculum
- improvements in pedagogy
Making a difference
Ownership
by teachers
Involvement of
parents and learners
Continuing development and responsiveness
to changing local and national priorities
8. Talking Point 2
• How can Local Authorities use this material to support
schools to review and refresh approaches to assessment?
• Look again at the ‘Making a difference’ slide- which of
these four areas are the biggest priorities for the schools
you work with?
This slide would probably be best to use in an afternoon session?? [Keep in, make clear this was the starting point for the project and could form the basis for the kinds of questions they could use to start to engage schools in thinking about their practice]
What’s QCA been doing: Articulating assessment project
Big Picture: what are we trying to achieve?
In context of…
Afl Strategy
APP
Other drivers and national initiatives
Big picture How did we organise the project?
Primary, secondary and special schools in West Sussex, Warwickshire and Rotherham involved. The project focused on developing discussion about assessment in schools and making connections between different types of assessment.
Over the past two years QCA has been working with schools, trying out ideas for curriculum development and innovation. We've found that successful, effective curriculum innovation must be disciplined. It must be focused, based on evidence and closely monitored. To support this we have provided a seven step process for planning curriculum development that can apply equally well to assessment development
Outputs of project:
Guidance document
Webpages
Case studies
How well are we doing? What did we find out?
We have summarised here what we think are the five main challenges to meet. The later section on auditing practice includes questions to help schools test the state of play in relation to each of them.
Establishing coherence
Establishing coherence means covering the key dimensions of knowledge, understanding and skills in the national curriculum and making sure that the connections between the different elements are clear. It also covers making the right connections between the three types of assessment – day-to-day, periodic and transitional – so that the school’s system runs intelligently and efficiently.
2.Gaining involvement
The principles on which the school’s assessment practice runs need to be understood by everyone involved. This includes pupils and parents, as well as staff. We think it is important to declare and discuss those principles so that all parties have a chance to identify the key features and outcomes of good assessment. Discussion of this kind is a necessary preface to working through the operational arrangements that govern how assessment is carried out, recorded and reported.
3.Building consistency
Consistency is critical to effective assessment practice. Teachers of the same subject need to interpret national standards so that everyone involved can be sure that the basis of assessment is the same. Although there are natural differences in specific methods of assessment in different subjects, it is also important that there is consistency in the broad approach used – for example in the way pupils’ views are gathered and used and in the way assessments are recorded and reported.
4.Securing manageability
As every teacher knows, good assessment takes effort and time. However, there is always the danger that assessment practice can become too complicated, from all the best motives. This applies to the systems and the paperwork teachers use to focus assessment – they can easily become bogged down in too much detail. It applies to the collection and storing of evidence – this can become too unwieldy and cumbersome. It also applies to systems of reporting, which can be too complicated for the teachers, pupils and parents who are meant to use them. One of the key questions SLTs need to ask themselves is ‘what are we going to ask our staff to stop doing around assessment to create space for the new approaches (eg. ask for assessment information less frequently, change focus away from setting and marking tests to periodically assessing ongoing progress)
5.Achieving impact
We can judge the impact of assessment in two ways:
•does it help us to plan the curriculum and meet individual needs effectively?
•does it help teachers and learners understand the progress pupils make, the standards they achieve and what they need to do to improve further?
Judging assessment by its value in these two respects takes us from simply considering whether assessment is well organised. Of course it needs to be, but the system and the rigour with which assessment is carried out need to have clear payoff – that is, they must help reveal where learners stand and what to do to improve their performance. This is the payoff in which, for one, Ofsted inspections are interested. They want assurance that schools really know their pupils well and use that knowledge to improve teaching and outcomes.
The experiences of the schools involved identify a number of key factors about its management that help to ensure good headway. The key factors echo the questions that underpin the big picture of the curriculum- the guidance is organised under these headings
Aims: What we are trying to achieve?
•Develop closer links between assessment and teaching and learning in ways that will help support the progress of the individual learner.
• Systematically link day-to-day (assessment for learning), periodic and transitional assessment.
•Establish a wider range of evidence and explore different ways of recognising achievement to develop a clearer picture of what an individual learner needs in order to make as much progress as possible.
•Use an enlightened approach to assessment to reshape the curriculum offer.
•Have objectives that are derived from an audit of practice and matched to the school’s improvement priorities.
Management: How will we get the best from the work?
•Have the right people involved in the right way, with senior staff showing their commitment.
•Make sure the work is of the right scale and size and is regularly monitored and evaluated.
•Insist that activities and systems are kept as simple as possible.
•Make sure that developments are communicated to staff, parents and pupils and others with an interest in the school’s work.
Impact: How will we know when we are achieving our aims?
•Try things out and capture evidence of how they work ‘on the go’, as well as at predetermined milestones or evaluation points.
•Evaluate the benefits, identifying what needs to be adjusted and attempted next.
