Formative, Summative and Accountability Demands for

Assessment to Support and not Undermine Learning

Bronwen Cowie WMIER

The University of Waikato, New Zealand

Outline

1.  A systems orientation

2.  The New Zealand context

3.  Examples of practice

1. A systems orientation Multiple assessment purposes

• Formative assessment is used to inform action to enhance teaching and learning, during the learning

• Summative assessment sums up student learning at a point in time

•  Accountability/ accreditation assessment accounts for and or reports on student or system learning to others

• Each of these assessment purposes has a role to play in a productive assessment system

• All assessments must support learning in some way

1. A systems orientation

• The stakeholders and participants in assessment include:

• Students, teachers, families, schools and their wider communities. Ministry/ Department of Education personnel at the regional, state and national levels, policy makers and politicians

• These stakeholders have different informational needs (focus, format, time) that need to be met

1. A systems orientation

• Curriculum, pedagogy and assessment interact to shape and frame students’ educational experiences and teacher practice

• What really counts in education is what happens when teachers and students meet. The wisdom of any decision about education is best judged on the basis of whether or not it raises the quality of these interactions. (Atkin and Black, 2003, p. ix)

• Teachers experience multiple accountabilities within and through assessment

2. The New Zealand context

2. The New Zealand context

2. The New Zealand context

• A national curriculum

• Current curriculum goals pose a challenge to conventional assessment practices

•  The development of student capacity for lifelong learning •  The development of student capacity to use, generate and

critique and not just recall knowledge •  Expectations that all students can and will learn

• Schools and teachers devise local curriculum, assessment and reporting to build on student and community needs and interests

2. The New Zealand context

• No national testing at primary •  Light sample system monitoring of students at Year 4 and 8 from

1995

• Recent introduction of National Standards for literacy and mathematics

• Policy and professional development support for formative assessment

• Students at the heart of assessment policy

3. Examples of practice from primary science classrooms

1.  Teacher accountability to the curriculum via planning for instruction and assessment

2.  Teachers balancing accountability to students and to the curriculum

3.  Teacher accountability to students for opportunities for self assessment

4.  Teachers balancing formative and summative assessment

5.  Teacher assessment/ reporting to families

Example 1: Accountability to the curriculum via planning

• On the whole primary teachers have a restricted background in science

• Detailed planning that targets the breadth and depth of desired learning outcomes can support

• The development of the pedagogical content knowledge teachers need to teach and assess

• Clarification of student performance expectations (What might learning look like?) and criteria for quality (How do we judge success criteria?)

• Coherence and continuity in student opportunities to learn

Example 1: Planning framework part 1

Big idea/ task: Learning area/s:

Key competencies:

Conceptual learning outcomes:

Procedural learning outcomes:

Nature of Science:

Technical skills:

•  Framework helps teachers identify ‘big’ ideas •  Think through component and contributing ideas •  Rehearse tasks and anticipate student responses

Example 1: Planning framework part 2

Tasks Macro idea/ task

Meso ideas/ tasks

Micro tasks Resources

Planned interactions

Key Outcomes/ evidence

1. 1.1

1.2

2. 2.1

2.2

•  Teachers link tasks to learning outcomes to performance expectations

•  Sets up tasks as nested and connected •  Teachers rehearse tasks and anticipate possibilities •  Teachers scope interactions

14

Example 1: Teacher thoughts on planning

Some things, concepts need to be deliberately taught, or brought to children’s attention. You need to know what you want your children to know. Yes, it made me clarify what exactly were the ideas, so that I was better able to help the children. (Lois)

It made me think through each stage thoroughly instead of always having to think on my toes, which can often mean missing good opportunities, or not choosing the best way to do something. (Jenny)

Example 2: Balancing accountability to students and to the curriculum

A combination of planned and interactive formative assessment • Planned formative assessment

•  Tasks such as quick quizzes, brainstorms,

concept mapping

•  Involves the whole class •  Focused on teacher curriculum learning goals

• Interactive formative assessment • Takes place through teacher-student interaction

• Relies on teacher noticing, recognising and responding to student learning as it emerges

• Student focused and very demanding for teachers

Example 3: Accountability to students for self assessment

Need to develop student capacity to assess and progress their own learning

• Peer assessment

• Access to criteria for quality/ success

• Access to resources to inform decision making

!

Example 4: Teachers balancing formative and summative assessment

• Teacher summing up during a teaching sequence • Teacher summing up at the end of teaching sequence

• Teachers sharing whole class summative assessment information

Example 5: Teacher accountability to families and the school community Moving beyond written reports at the end of a period of

teaching and learning

• Engaging families with their child’s learning throughout a unit of work

• Class websites • Displays of student work

• Public presentations as a means of reporting to families

Concluding comments

• Teachers are responsible for formative, summative and accountability assessment purposes

• These need to cohere in support of student learning in the short, medium and long term

• It is difficult for teachers to change their practice in isolation

• Leadership support and resourcing is crucial at all levels of the system

• There is value in bringing teachers together to plan and to discuss student work

WWW.WAIKATO.AC.NZ/WMIER +64 7 858 5171