Assessment and Reporting at KS3

Peter Hall

Yonathan Abraham

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Assessment and Reporting at KS3

Peter Hall

Yonathan Abraham

• Students left Key Stage 2 with a level

• By the end of KS4 we aimed for 4 levels of progress

Background

Sample report…

• Progress is not linear

• Unfair Performance management

• Teachers reporting target grades

• Inflated KS3 results

Issues with Levels of progress

Students leave with a scaled score

3/4 levels of progress

Life Without Levels

Beacon Assessment and Reporting

• Each department had its own assessment policy

• Students were put into sets based on KS2 scaled score, set changes were infrequent, particularly in literacy based subjects

• Reported an end of year 11 projected grade at the end of each year

• Assessments were carried out internally and never formally reported home

Beacon Assessment and Reporting

It is highly inconvenient to accept that learning is invisible. 1.So many of the systems and processes we have created are predicated on a certainty that we can tell if students are learning; lesson observation, work sampling, performance management, performance related pay and data tracking, for example. We have to swallow our pride and start to redesign the systems we have come to rely on. 2.Senior leaders know best. That’s why they are senior leaders isn’t it? Accepting that we probably can’t tell if learning is taking place is tantamount to the factory manager admitting that he can’t judge the quality of the firm’s product, or the football manager telling his players that he doesn’t know how well they played. That’s a comfortable world for everyone, not just the leader. 3.Complexity, uncertainty and messiness don’t sit well with a school accountability system which ranks, rates and codifies success, or a politics of sound bite and simplification.

https://educontrarianblog.com/2016/02/17/red-pill-blue-pill/

Success?

• In 2018 our final year 11 tracking matched their GCSE percentages almost exactly

• But… under closer examination….

•1

3 did better than their final tracking

•1

3 did worse than their final tracking

• We were only correct with the final 1

3

Performance Management

• Recent year 9 tracking….

• 217 out of 221 students were reported as being on track.

• Giving current GCSE grades in every year – starting with Year 7

• Emphasis on GCSE questions – and marking criteria

• Flight paths • Linear progress • APP grids

Observed other schools

Reporting

Students and parents prefer information about current attainment to predicted GCSE grades

Students

Parents

Knowledge Based Curriculum

Key areas Beacon focused on: • Knowledge provides a driving, underpinning

philosophy • The knowledge content is specified in detail • Knowledge is sequenced and mapped deliberately

and coherently • Knowledge is taught to be remembered, not merely

encountered • New assessment policy to go alongside our

knowledge based curriculum

Knowledge Based Curriculum

Do we value what we measure or measure what we value?

1.We need to separate out the value of tests from

the damaging effects of accountability

2.We need to utilise the ‘Testing Effect’

3.Practising mock examinations over and over is no

guarantee of success

4.Teacher assessment is biased

5.Assessments need to have validity and reliability

http://www.cem.org/blog/five-things-ive-learned-about-the-importance-of-good-assessment/

Better Assessments

1. What does the assessment claim to measure?

2. Does your assessment measure everything within the subject, or are there

gaps?

3. How well do the assessment scores correlate with other measures of the

same thing?

4. If you carry out the assessment more than once, do you get similar

results?

5. Could anything about the test takers affect the results?

6. For what ranges is the assessment appropriate?

7. Does taking the assessment or the results it generates have direct value to

teachers and learners? http://www.cem.org/blog/7-questions-you-need-to-ask-about-assessment/

Better Assessments

1. What does the assessment claim to measure?

It is important to take a step back and really think about what it is that the assessment is

attempting to measure.

For example, an assessment that is great for working out a predicted grade might not be good at

helping identify pupils’ strengths and weaknesses.

2. Does your assessment measure everything within the subject, or are there gaps?

Some assessments are designed to assess everything within a particular topic area.

Spelling tests, for instance, can check a student’s ability to spell a set of new words learnt that

week, but it is unusual for this to be the case.

The larger the domain, the more difficult it will be to cover everything.

3. How well do the assessment scores correlate with other measures of the same thing?

An example of this would be assessing a group of students with an old GCSE paper, and then

assessing them again a couple of days later, using a new GCSE paper.

If your new test compares to a well-established test, you have good evidence that your

assessment is working.

http://www.cem.org/blog/7-questions-you-need-to-ask-about-assessment/

4. If you carry out the assessment more than once, do you get similar results?

Ideally, if you re-sit an assessment, you’d want the results to be pretty much the same as

when you last did it. This is known as “test-retest reliability”.

If a student sits their maths mock exam paper twice – would they get the same results?

If the results are not consistent, this could suggest that the assessment is unreliable.

5. Could anything about the test takers affect the results?

Ideally your assessment will be as open possible to everyone who takes it, with no

particular group put at a disadvantage.

Creating an assessment like this is difficult to achieve, but it is important to bear in mind

when constructing the assessment whether it unfairly favours some groups over others.

It is important to think about whether the assessment is free from biases such as gender,

social class, ethnicity, reading ability, cultural background.

http://www.cem.org/blog/7-questions-you-need-to-ask-about-assessment/

6. For what ranges is the assessment appropriate?

Academic assessments are normally aimed at a particular age and ability range, both in

terms of the language used and the content presented.

Amidst the recent examination reform, schools are having to create assessments without

the helpful accumulation of past papers. Are GCSE students therefore being presented

with questions that were actually intended for A-level students? Or vice versa?

7. Does taking the assessment or the results it generates have direct value to teachers

and learners?

Why are you asking your students to take this assessment?

What will it tell you that you don’t know already?

How will you use the information the results give you?

Can you use the results of the assessment to directly impact the teaching and learning of

your students?

http://www.cem.org/blog/7-questions-you-need-to-ask-about-assessment/

Why are we doing this?

1. We have a new knowledge based curriculum. We need an assessment and reporting system which clearly supports this.

2. A clear, whole school process will allow all parents to understand how their child is being measured and their child’s attainment: it is far more inclusive to be explicit about the assessment system.

3. Sitting tests is an incredibly productive way to learn. Retrieval during a test aids later retention.

4. Tests can be great for motivation.

5. Tests can aid teacher planning and curriculum design.

Formal Tests

• Two assessments • All students sit the same

assessment

• The assessments will include everything students have learnt

What will this look like in practice? • October 2019 soft tracking sent home – attitudes to learning only

• 5 weeks before the tests a pack will be sent home outlining the content of the test and how to revise.

The head of year 7 will speak about this in assembly • Homework is just revision from 3 weeks before the test . Students will need guidance on this from

subject teachers

• 2 weeks before the test, students have an assembly focused on resilience and mental health around the assessment

• Teachers do not know what is on the test paper, where possible

• Teachers prepare students for 2 lessons before they sit the test • Students sit a 55 minute test in lessons. All students sit the same test at the same time

• Arrangements will be made for students who have concessions • Results are reported 2 weeks later

• Year 7 Parents evening takes place the week after reports are sent home

July 2019 Curriculum

overview

For years 7 and 8 completed for website

Sept

2019

Year 7 Information

Evening

Year 7 parents presented with information about reporting

and assessment week. Also explain marking and feedback

policy.

Nov 2019 QA of Assessments Assessments handed in for QA

Revision packs

completed

Revision packs and sent for QA

Dec 2019 Revision packs sent

home

Revision packs, details of assessments sent to students and

parents and assessment timetable. HoY to explain in

assembly

Jan 2020 Assembly Resilience and mental health around exams

Lesson preparation Teachers can devote up to 2 lessons on teaching students

how to revise and test preparation.

Year 7 Parents’

Evening

Feedback on progress

What now? Implementation Timeline

How does standardising work?

Subject Assessment Percentage

Assessment Average in year

Beacon Standardised

Score

English 76 47 118

Maths 88 65 110

Science 54 43 106

Geography 83 65 112

How does standardising work?

History Science Philosophy, Religion, Ethics

How does standardising work?

History Science Philosophy, Religion, Ethics

Monitor / Intervention

Monitor / Intervention

However…

1. We have not used rank order

2. Results are only relative to our cohort at our school.

Amanda Spielman (June, 2018)

https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/amanda-spielman-at-the-bryanston-education-summit

Three conclusions

1. Students (and staff) knowing how well they have learned has been valuable

2. This has helped staff develop their skills around assessment

3. We have been better equipped to monitor and intervene

Any questions?

Any questions?

How do you know how well your students are doing? What do you do when you find a student is not doing so well? What aspects of your assessment practice works well? Are there any aspects that work less well?

Workload

• No expectation from SLT that teachers will mark year 7 students’ work.

• Classroom teachers must still look at books.

• Teachers are responsible for the quality of work, its presentation

• Teaching should be responsive.

• Students should receive regular feedback, this could be verbal feedback, re-teaching a concept or homework.

• This includes identifying and addressing individual students’ misconceptions.

• Departments may have a different policy

• We will review this in January

How to produce reliable, valid assessments

Do the assessment tools suit the knowledge you are testing?

Are questions understandable? Check for misleading language and potential barriers, like a high reading age.

Are students given enough opportunity to show their understanding of key elements of the curriculum?

Have you given students the opportunity to surprise you by demonstrating further knowledge they may have?

Have you considered the workload involved in marking the assessments? Can this be reduced?