CERIOECD Improving Learning through Formative Assessment 3 February

CERI/OECD “Improving Learning through Formative Assessment” 3 February, 2005

What is formative assessment? Formative assessment refers to frequent, interactive assessment of student progress and understanding, and adjustment of teaching to meet identified student needs.

Benefits of Formative Assessment • Prior research on formative assessment shows that “The gains in [student] achievement appear to be quite considerable, and … among the largest ever reported for educational interventions. ” (Black & Wiliam, 1998) • CERI/OECD research provides additional evidence of improved student achievement, including gains for underachieving students, and the development of students’ “learning to learn” skills.

Barriers to Wider Practice • Perceived tensions between high-visibility tests used for accountability purposes • Lack of coherence between assessment and evaluation at the student, school and system levels • Large classes, crowded curriculum, challenging students • Difficulty of sustaining innovation and change

Formative assessment can shape improvements at every level of the system Information gathered at each level of the system can be used to identify strengths and weaknesses, and to shape strategies for improvement.

Bringing together international policy, practice and research • Examination of policy frameworks for promoting formative assessment, interviews with policy officials in the featured systems • Visits to exemplary schools identified by country experts using carefully developed criteria • Interviews with school leaders, teachers, students and parents • Classroom observations • Reviews of English, French and German-language literature on formative assessment

Learning from “What Works” Nineteen case studies in eight OECD countries: – Australia (Queensland) – Canada (Saskatchewan, Newfoundland & Labrador, Québec) – Denmark – England – Finland – Italy – New Zealand – Scotland

Criteria for Identification of Exemplary Case Study Schools • Schools that have developed coordinated teaching and assessment strategies • Provide evidence of “what works” • Be from the lower secondary level • Involve “whole-school” approaches • Be embedded in a policy process that could offer lessons for scaling-up • Offer lessons of relevance to the majority of schools.

The Elements of Formative Assessment

Establishment of a classroom culture that encourages interaction and the use of assessment tools • Helping students to feel safe and confident in the classroom • Recognising students’ individual and cultural differences • Planning for student learning, rather than planning activities

Establishment of learning goals, and tracking of individual student progress toward those goals • Tracking student progress • Adjusting learning goals

Use of varied instruction methods to meet diverse student needs • Providing options for classroom work • Developing a repertoire of approaches to explaining concepts • Keeping lessons active, with plenty of variety • Ensuring variation in daily schedules • Providing options for advanced and remedial studies

Use of varied approaches to assessing student understanding • Using diagnostic assessment • Developing questioning techniques • Interacting with students and monitoring of progress

Feedback on student performance and adaptation of instruction to meet identified needs Teachers and researchers have found that effective feedback is: • timely • specific • includes suggestions for improvement • tied to explicit criteria regarding expectations for student performance • focused on the learning process (rather than products) Teachers also have also found that information gathered in the feedback process is useful as they modify and adapt teaching strategies to meet identified student needs.

Active involvement of students in the learning process • Scaffolding learning • Helping students to develop a repertoire of learning strategies • Building skills for peer- and self-assessment • Enhancing students’ roles in peer- and selfassessment

Formative assessment as a framework for teaching and learning • Teachers in several of the case study schools said that prior to establishing formative assessment as an overall framework for teaching, their own use of formative methods had been somewhat haphazard. • Teachers using formative assessment as a framework made fundamental changes in their approaches to teaching – in their interactions with students, the way they set up learning situations and guided students toward learning goals – even the way they thought about student success.

Addressing barriers, realising benefits CLASSROOM LEVEL BARRIERS TO CHANGE STRATEGIES FOR ADDRESSING BARRIERS • Difficulty of managing large classes • • • Divided classes Mixed-age classes Co-operative learning • Extensive curriculum requirements • Prioritising requirements, placing emphasis on core concepts • Using formative assessment with students considered as more challenging • Using formative assessment with highest performing students first, gradually integrating into more challenging classes

Direct Classroom Benefits • Improvements in the quality of teaching • Stronger relationships with students and increased contact with parents • Greater student engagement • Different and better work products from students

Addressing barriers, realising benefits SCHOOL LEVEL BARRIERS TO CHANGE STRATEGIES FOR ADDRESSING BARRIERS • • Difficulty of influencing classroom level change • • • Lack of innovation or risk-taking with new methods • • • Keeping the focus on teaching and learning Encouraging professional development Encouraging peer support Using problems as opportunities Parlaying unrelated initiatives into changes in approaches to teaching Taking advantage of pilot projects, partnerships with universities

SCHOOL LEVEL BARRIERS TO CHANGE STRATEGIES FOR ADDRESSING BARRIERS • Negative attitudes about student capabilities • Allowing teachers to build confidence in using formative assessment before using with lowerperforming students • Teacher isolation • Creating opportunities for peer support and observation, videotapes and observation laboratories

SCHOOL LEVEL BARRIERS TO CHANGE STRATEGIES FOR ADDRESSING BARRIERS • Difficulty of sustaining change • Focusing attention on data regarding the impact of teaching practices • Developing and disciplining teachers’ skills for innovation, creating fertile ground for change

School-wide benefits • • Improved learning to learn skills High value-added Increased student retention and attendance Gains in academic achievement, greater attention to weaker students

Policy Frameworks • Legislation supporting the practice of formative assessment and establishing it as a priority • Efforts to encourage the use of summative data formative purposes at the school and classroom levels. • Guidelines on effective teaching and formative assessment practices embedded in national curriculum and other materials. • Provision of tools and exemplars to support effective formative assessment. • Investment in special initiatives and innovative programmes incorporating formative assessment approaches. • Investment in teacher professional development formative assessment.