Issue 1

The Origins of Assessment Learning
By Mr P Fowler

In February 1998 Professor Paul Black and Dr Dylan William published what is largely considered to be the most significant British education research of recent times. Their study ‘Inside the Black Box’ analysed over 600 studies of school assessment and concluded that if schools adopted ‘formative assessment’ (ongoing assessment which tells students how to improve) rather than mere ‘summative assessment’ (end of unit/course assessment which tells students what they have achieved in terms of grades or levels, but nothing else) there would be a significant improvement in attainment for all students, regardless of their ability. The research also argued that lower-achieving students benefited most from this form of diagnostic assessment which places heavy emphasis on high-quality feedback.

According to Black and William, the following works...

• Regular classroom testing and the use of results to adjust teaching and learning rather than for competitive grading.
• Enhanced feedback between teacher and student which may be oral or written.
• The active involvement of all students.
• Careful attention to students’ motivation and help in building their self-belief.
• Self-or peer-assessment by students, discussion in groups and dialogue between students and teacher.

...and what doesn't

• Tests that encourage rote and superficial learning.
• Over-emphasis on the giving of marks and grades at the expense of useful advice to learners
• Competitive teaching approaches that demotivate some students.
• Feedback, testing and record-keeping that serve a managerial function rather than a learning one.

So how have we reacted to this important research at Polesworth? What have we changed about our assessment practice?

• Although teachers do keep records of student attainment in Years 7, 8 and 9, levels are not written on individual pieces of written work. The emphasis is on comments to move learning on.*
• We allow students more thinking time when it comes to answering teacher questions. We are also working harder to improve the quality of the questions we ask.
• We are introducing more self- and peer-assessment across the curriculum.
• More assessment takes place within the classroom with an increased emphasis on target setting and sharing learning objectives.
• Marking of written work is likely to be more selective, focusing on particular aspects of a task rather than the whole task.

What have we done to ensure the changes in practice have been beneficial for our students’ academic attainment?

• We made sure that our assessment practice was in keeping with our main partner junior schools.
• We have established an Assessment for Learning (AfL) working group which monitors current practice.
• We have carried out an extensive audit across all subject areas.
• We have interviewed a significant number of students about their feelings on assessment.
• We have devoted a professional development day to AfL with different subject teachers sharing good practice.
• As always, we continue to monitor examination and test results such as SATs to ensure standards are rising.

*Black found that where levels were written on work, students ignored written comments. Those students receiving lower levels were completely demotivated and believed themselves to be stupid. Black’s control group which were given comments only, achieved 30% more progress than other groups. It is worth noting here that subject levels are generic, and as such, cannot accurately be applied to individual pieces of written work. Subjects continue to record levels to report to parents once a year (apart from Art, Music and Physical Education) and all subjects report a teacher assessment level at the end of Key Stage 3.