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Sadler (1998) identifies skill in the analysis and use of assessment
information (data) as being a key attribute of assessment literacy.
Analysis is a concept that raises many questions for teachers,
including:
- What is analysis?
- What kinds of information or data do we need?
- Do I have reliable data?
- Do I have sufficient data for my purpose?
- Who needs this information and for what purpose?
- Does this data have to be collected and collated from a
formal assessment task or could it be anecdotal notes about a learning
conversation with a student?
- Who should be doing the analysis?
- Does the need affect the analysis? For example does the Board
of Trustees require the same sort of analysis as a classroom teacher
looking at reading results?
- I have the results of the analysis – what does it mean
and what should I do now?
Planning for Better Student Outcomes, Kia Hāngai Te Titiro
– Analysing Student Achievement Data (Ministry of Education,
September 2003) – provides answers to many of these questions.
Just because assessment data can be used for different purposes,
does not mean that it is necessary to carry out different kinds
of formal assessments.
Assessments that focus on what is important for students to learn
can provide data and evidence that may be looked at in different
ways to satisfy all information needs (page 1)
Analysis should lead to action – if nothing
is done with the data once it has been analysed it has been a fruitless
exercise.
Irene Symes and Helen Timperley illustrate the link between analysis
and use in their set 1, 2003 article Using achievement information
to raise student achievement (Set 1, 2003).
In an attempt to find solutions to the problem
of student underachievement in literacy, Robertson Road School
turned its attention to the achievement data it collected in the
junior school. In 2001, the AP began to guide her teachers through
the process of using collated, norm-referenced data to help them
evaluate the effectiveness of their junior school written language
programme, and to raise student achievement in this specific area
of weakness. The move towards making connections between classroom
teaching, programme design, and student learning, through the
close analysis of collated data, signalled a new direction for
both the AP and teachers in the school. (page 36)
References
Sadler, R. D. (1998). Formative Assessment: Revisiting the Territory.
Assessment in Education, 5 (1), 77–84.
Symes, I. and Timperley, H. (2003) Using achievement information
to raise student achievement. Set 1, 36–39.
Ministry of Education (September 2003). Planning for Better Student Outcomes
Kia Hāngai Te Titiro. Analysing Student Achievement Data., September
2003.
http://www.minedu.govt.nz/index.cfm?layout=document&documentid=9812&data=l
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