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You’ve tested with the PATs. You have the results. Exactly how much progress have your students made over the year and is this average, below average or accelerated for their year group?
Some questions for you:
- how well have they done since the last assessment?
- is their progress average, below average, or accelerated?
Teachers making decisions about their students’ achievements based on a range of sources of evidence is the cornerstone of an effective cycle of inquiry in any school. The evidence-based cycle of inquiry is the engine that drives improvement to teaching and learning in classrooms and in school-wide initiatives (Timperley et al, 2010). Research says this is how you make a difference.
On TKI Assessment Online, under ‘New Zealand's Approach to National Standards’, one of the reasons outlined for the introduction of the National Standards is to "affirm your ( the teacher) role as the professional who knows the most about your students’ achievement rather than relying on national tests."
Schools often ask when they should use standardised testing. Twice a year? Once a year ? There is no definitive answer, just a few questions, which, when answered by the school, will make choosing the time of year to assess more logical.
"The approaches we take to assessing learning, the kinds of tasks we assign and the way we report success or failure at school send powerful messages to students not only about their own learning but also about the nature of learning itself." This occasional paper by Australian Council for Educational
Let’s start off with the million dollar question: Why is it important to assess punctuation and grammar in the classroom?
The teaching and assessing of literacy and numeracy skills has become an important focal points in learning but does that mean it is worth spending much time assessing the more finely-tuned details of semicolons, conjunctions and clauses?
Teachers need resources that are designed to be a part of their normal classroom programme.
. ‘…much of what teachers and learners do in classrooms can be described as assessment. That is, tasks and questions prompt learners to demonstrate their knowledge, understanding and skills…’ TKI: Assessment for Learning 10 principles
Assessment is:
Recently, there has been some public debate about the 2012 National Standards results, how these stack up against the results from 2011, and what they mean. But interpreting National Standards results is difficult and the debate sometimes lacks depth.
In an article in the latest edition of SET Research information for Teachers, we explain how the norms used in the standardised reading test, STAR, can be checked and double-checked as more students use the assessment.
