A systematic review in the Educational Research Review has analyzed the evidence on prerequisites for implementing Assessment for Learning(AfL) in classroom practice. The aim was not to provide a “recipe for success,”but to generate a better understanding of what needs to be considered.

A total of 25 studies met the inclusion criteria. Of these, nine were conducted in the context of primary education, ten in secondary, and six covered both. The results included data from eleven different countries, but most of the studies were conducted in the US (n = 9).

The authors found that:

• The knowledge, skills, and attitudes of individual teachers influenced the establishment of an AfL-based learning environment. Pedagogical knowledge and content knowledge had an impact on a teacher’s ability to provide students with accurate and complete feedback. They also needed to have the ability to foster the participation of students in discussions about their answers, and construct questions that drew out evidence about their learning.
• The quality of AfL was influenced by teachers’ commitment to its underlying ideals,the extent to which they felt responsible for students’ attainment of goals,and their willingness to change their assessment practices to implement AfL.
• To a lesser extent, students’ knowledge, skills, and attitudes also had an impact.A positive attitude and taking an active role in their own learning process was found to foster autonomy and responsibility.
• The wider school context also determined how successfully the implementation of AfL was facilitated. School leaders play an important role and should focus on establishing a school wide AfL culture with a vision and expectations for AfL use, as well as providing time to prepare and for professional development.

The review considered the nature of the assessment itself. It concluded that feedback should besu bstantial, constructive, and focused, and provide the students with cues for how to proceed.  AfL should be aligned with the curriculum and standards, as well as being integrated into classroom teaching (rather than being an add-on activity).

Source: Heitink,M. C., Van der Kleij, F. M., Veldkamp, B. P., Schildkamp, K., & Kippers, W.B. (2016). A systematic review of prerequisites for implementing assessment for learning in classroom practice. Educational Research Review, 17, 50–62.
… Read the rest

In the RAND Corporation report “New Assessments, Better Instruction?Designing Assessment Systems to Promote Instructional Improvement.”,researchers conducted a series of literature reviews that focused on topics such as high-stakes testing, performance assessment, and formative evaluation.

Their findings suggest that there are a wide variety of effects that testing might have on teachers’ activities in the classroom, including

• changes in curriculum content and emphasis (e.g., changes in the sequence of topics, reallocation of emphasis across and within topics);
• changes in how teachers allocate time and resources across different pedagogical activities (e.g.,focusing on test preparation); and
• changes in how teachers interact with individual students (e.g., using test results to individualize instruction).

The report also identifies a number of factors (e.g., student characteristics and district and school policies) that mediate the relationship between assessment and instructional practices.

The authors suggest that the role of tests would be enhanced by policies that ensure tests mirror high-quality instruction, are part of a larger, systemic change effort,and are accompanied by specific supports for teachers.

Source (Open Access )：Faxon-Mills, S., Hamilton, L. S., Rudnick, M., & Stecher, B. M. (2013). New assessments, better instruction? Designing assessment systems to promote instructional improvement. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation.… Read the rest

A study has looked at the link between instructional alignment (how teaching is aligned with standards and assessments), value-added measures of teacher effectiveness, and composite measures of teacher effectiveness using multiple measures.

The study looked at 324 teachers of fourth and eighth grade math and English language arts in five states. They completed a Survey of Enacted Curriculum to measure their instructional alignment. This was then compared with value-added measures(taken from state assessments and two supplementary assessments) and teacher effectiveness (using Framework for Teaching scores).

The results showed

• There was modest evidence of a relationship between instructional alignment and value-added measures,although this disappeared when controlling for pedagogical quality.
• The association between instructional alignment and value-added measures is more positive when pedagogy is high quality.
• There was no association between instructional alignment and measures of teacher effectiveness.

These results suggest that the tests used for calculating value-added measures are not able to detect differences in the content or quality of classroom teaching.  

Source: Polikoff,M. S., & Porter, A. C. (2014). Instructional Alignment as a Measure of Teaching Quality. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 36(4),399–416. … Read the rest

An evaluation published in Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis evaluates the impact of the Digital Conversion Initiative on student outcomes for one school district in North Carolina.

The initiative provided laptop computers to every student from the fourth grade upwards, while also providing teachers with training on how to best use the technology in their lesson plans.

Marie Hull and Katherine Duch used administrative school data from 2005 to 2013 to determine the program’s impact on math and reading achievement for students in grades 4 to 8, as well as the impact of the program on student behavior. They compared the district’s data from before and after implementation, as well as data from neighboring school districts without one-to-one programs to determine the short-and medium-term effects.

Their results suggest there is potential for one-to-one laptop programs to help improve student outcomes. They found that:

• Math scores for students improved by 0.11 standard deviations in the short term and 0.13 standard deviations in the medium term.
• No significant change in reading scores in the short term, and mixed evidence of improvement in the medium term.
• Time spent on homework stayed constant.
• Students spent more of their homework time using a computer.

The authors concluded that one-to-one computing was a promising way to improve student outcomes, while the desired changes might take a few years to appear. Their research highlighted the need to follow outcomes into the medium and long term.

Source: Hull, M., & Duch, K. (2018). One-to-one technology and student outcomes: Evidence from Mooresville’s Digital Conversion Initiative. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis. Advanced online publication. doi:10.3102/0162373718799969… Read the rest

A study published in Contemporary Educational Psychology suggested that the relationship between test anxiety and performance in high-stakes tests is positive, but the relationship varies for students with different achievement levels.

Yao-Ting Sung and colleagues at the National Taiwan University used data from 1,931 Taiwanese ninth grader from 37 schools. The Basic Competence Test (BCTEST) was used to benchmark their achievement. The BCTEST is a high-stakes test for Taiwan junior-high school students, determining to which high schools with different levels of prestige and tuition fees they will be admitted. Subjects in the test included Mandarin, English, Mathematics, Social studies, Science and Writing. Test anxiety was measured by the examination stress scale.

The findings include:

• The overall relationship between text-anxiety and learning achievement in the high-stakes testing was positive (r =+0.18).
• Lower levels of test-anxiety were found among the high-achievement and low-achievement students while higher levels of test-anxiety were found among the moderate-achievement students.
• For the group of students with higher achievements, the relationship between text-anxiety and learning achievement in the high-stakes testing was found to be negative (r = -0.16), while for the group of students with lower achievement, a positive relationship was found (r= +0.22).

The authors suggested that the motivation to perform well may override the negative impacts of test anxiety in high-stakes tests. However, for moderate-achievement students, their high test-anxiety may be due to the uncertainty they face about which kinds of schools they will be admitted to and to their not knowing how to study more effectively. Schools could relieve their uncertainty-anxiety by helping them to choose suitable schools and to explore their career aptitude and interests.

Source: Sung, Y.-T., Chao, T.-Y., & Tseng, F.-L. (2016). Reexamining the relationship between test anxiety and learning achievement: An individual-differences perspective. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 46, 241–252. … Read the rest