Designed properly, assessments help build student skills and provide the vital feedback which teachers and students need. Classroom assessments should be frequent as they’re vital for teachers to monitor student performance. Timely feedback is crucial as it identifies gaps in teaching and learning and enables prompt remediation.
There is a movement afoot to explore new ways of obtaining feedback from students without requiring students to use electronic devices as these are potentially very distracting. After all, the role of the teacher is to ensure students stay focussed, thus maximising their learning.
For too long teachers have seen assessments as an end of term event, rather than a frequent monitoring of intended outcomes which would potentially ensure that progress of students improves each year.
Aren’t we as a profession, meant to be getting better at our core business - improving student outcomes?
Why then, have our PISA numeracy results been getting progressively worse, as shown below?
Will our 2018 results, when released in December this year, continue this downward trend?
A sound teaching program requires stage by stage assessments which are used to confirm progress of students.
Schools using AutoMarque have their marking and data collection carried out by their school photocopier (marking thirty students work in less than two minutes) which provides them with exceptionally powerful data. This saves teachers considerable marking time and gives them tools for easy, frequent assessments which provide powerful new insights into the learning of students. The most impactful ‘assessment for learning’ is the real time assessment of the classroom learning, integrated with instruction and the curriculum. Schools that regularly conduct pre-test/post-test analysis along with learning needs analysis have found that their NAPLAN scores improve, on average, by ten points per year every year. In effect the teachers in such schools are improving the quality and effectiveness of their teaching.
You would be aware of Prof. John Hattie’s work which emphasises the importance of teachers knowing their impact. AutoMarque provides you with a measure of your impact when you conduct pre-test/post-test analysis.
Are your school’s NAPLAN results improving year after year or are they flat lining like so many schools that are drifting?
Notice the school growth column in the graph below! This may well indicate why our PISA results have been declining.
Would you like to see your school’s results consistently improve year after year? We would be pleased to provide you with a briefing via Skype, Zoom or the like, to explain how you and your team can easily achieve improved outcomes for your students. Contact us at: [email protected] or phone 0402 260 298