Using data on student outcomes

The data teachers or schools collect about students can provide valuable information about students’ engagement and achievement. It can be used to identify areas of strength or concern and provides a means of asking better questions, focusing investigations, and monitoring progress. An effective approach, and one that is also quite efficient, can be the identification of a target group of students whose progress is monitored especially closely.

Timperley (2007) makes the point that knowing what students are expected to know and do can have a powerful influence in raising overall standards. Standardised student achievement data helps teachers and schools to understand what they should be expecting. It is important for comparisons (class-wide, school-wide, or nationwide) at particular points in time and over time.

Standardised student achievement data is obtained through administering a normed assessment tool under a specified set of conditions. This data can be used to make inferences about the achievement of a student or a group of students when compared statistically to the norm. (A norm derives from a large or national sample representing a wide and diverse cross-section of students.) Examples of normed assessment tools in New Zealand include asTTle, PATs, and STAR.

Teachers’ day-by-day collection of data and monitoring of progress through a broad range of diagnostic and informal assessment practices are equally important. The information gathered helps to inform teachers’ planning and their moment-by-moment teaching decisions. Examples of diagnostic and standards-based assessment tools include The New Zealand Curriculum Exemplars, the ARBs, the surveys from NEMP, and specialist tools such as NumPA (see below).

ISTEs can support teachers to develop their understanding and use of student data by providing specific instruction about assessment tools and by modelling the use of data within their own practice.

Case 4: Supporting Teachers to Be Self-regulatory

The work of Melanie and her colleagues at Rata Street School began with an initial needs analysis using three standardised assessment tools:

• Supplementary Tests of Achievement in Reading (STAR)
• Assessment Tools for Teaching and Learning (asTTle)
• Observation Survey of Early Literacy Achievement (the “six-year net”).

Over time, the teachers have become comfortable using such tools, and the standardised data has improved their understanding of what different levels of achievement look like and increased their expectations for their students.

In Melanie and Glenda’s pre-observation conversation (see video Clip 2), Glenda describes how she began the year by reviewing the asTTle results from the end of the previous year to identify her students’ strengths and needs and to decide on the next steps for their learning.

See also the learning story “Using data within a professional learning approach”, pages 174–175.

Recommended reading

Timperley, H. and Parr, J. (2004). Using Evidence in Teaching Practice: Implications for Professional Learning. Auckland: Hodder Moa Beckett.
Chapters 3 and 4 of this valuable practical guide discuss the selection and use of normed assessment tools.

The Ministry of Education has a number of websites that provide information about how to gather and analyse student data and use it to plan for student and teacher learning. They are valuable resources for ISTEs when building schools’ capacity for evidence-based practice. The websites include:

• The Assessment Resources for Classroom Teachers (ARCT):
  ARCT are compiled by the New Zealand Council for Educational Research. They include the Assessment Resource Banks (ARBs) and over 3500 assessment resources in mathematics, science, and English.
• Consider the Evidence:
  Consider the Evidence is designed to assist secondary schools with using evidence to make decisions that will help improve student achievement. It can be applied in all curriculum learning areas and school processes.
• LeadSpace:
  LeadSpace provides information, tools, and links that support school leadership, governance, and management. It includes a section intended to help leaders to use evidence in their decision making.
• TKI Assessment:
  TKI’s assessment community has information about all aspects of assessment. This includes a considerable body of research and readings, online workshops, and new assessment tools and resources. For example, it provides links to asTTle (Assessment Tools for Teaching and Learning) and NEMP (National Education Monitoring Project).
• TKI: Assessment Tools: Literacy and Numeracy:
  This page provides summaries of a range of assessment tools and links to several Curriculum Updates that provide background information on assessment.
• NumPA: Numeracy Project Assessment:
  The Numeracy Project Assessment is a diagnostic tool designed to provide information about the knowledge and mental strategies of students. It takes the form of an individual interview with students.

In 2007, ERO published three reports on schools’ effectiveness in the collection and use of assessment:

• “The Collection and Use of Assessment Information in Schools”
• “The Collection and Use of Assessment Information in Schools: Good Practice in Primary Schools”
• “The Collection and Use of Assessment Information in Schools: Good Practice in Secondary Schools”.

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