An asTTle story
The following story is an account of the asTTle development taken from the asTTle entry in the 2004 Bearing Point Awards. asTTle won second place in these awards and also won the ComputerWorld Excellence Award for IT in Education in 2003. It includes anecdotes from teachers who have used asTTle.
As part of the National Assessment Strategy (1999) the Ministry of Education supports the development of assessment initiatives and recognises the need for quality assessment tools to help teachers develop and deliver effective teaching programmes that raise student achievement in reading, writing and mathematics.
asTTle – why?
Assessment is an important aspect of quality teaching practice. Adrienne Alton-lee (2002) states, "The evidence suggests that when assessment takes the form of effective and formative feedback it is one of the most influential elements of quality teaching."
On this basis, embedding assessment for learning into classroom practice has become a focus for the Ministry of Education in meeting the Government's two key priorities for the New Zealand education: to reduce systematic underachievement in education; and build an education system that equips New Zealanders with skills appropriate for the twenty-first century.
asTTle – what?
- asTTle is a CD-Rom tool that helps teachers create and analyse tests in reading, writing and mathematics.
- asTTle gives teachers rich information about their students' performance.
- asTTle targets teachers and students in years 5 to 10 (nine to 15-year olds), school administrators and boards of trustees, parents, and caregivers.
- asTTle is provided to schools free of charge, and can be ordered online at http://www.tki.org.nz/r/asttle/orderform_e.php
asTTle, enables teachers to monitor student progress, to compare results with similar schools or nationwide data. It gives precise interpretations of individual student achievement (rather than a score), specific feedback for teachers and students, and access to resources for the next steps in learning.
asTTle facts
asTTle uses technology to:
- create item banks
- select items for tests
- score test results
- analyse results.
asTTle is unique because it integrates these procedures into a complete package – delivering a system that enables teachers to identify teaching and learning priorities and resources. Teachers can be confident that the latest psychometric methods are used without having to know the mathematical details.
asTTle:
- can be used in the same way on Macintosh and PCs
- enables data to be assembled and assessed at no cost to schools
- generates tests in a PDF format
- generates interactive reports, graphs and charts to show the results.
Leanne Smith, assistant principal, Waikowhai Intermediate, Auckland:
"I'm passionate about assessment now and that's all down to asTTle. We're using asTTle for teacher development – by making sure that teachers' planning reflects the students' needs which asTTle has identified."
asTTle – how
- asTTle allows teachers to set tests that are aligned to the curriculum when they want and at the level they want; and to measure progress over time.
- asTTle uses a programming method (linear programming heuristics) to create the 'best possible' test while also meeting the requirements specified by the teacher.
- asTTle has developed a new approach to writing and classifying test items so that every test is tailored to the specific needs of the classroom.
- asTTle has made advances in standard-setting methodologies, giving teachers a realistic picture of how well each student, class, or school is doing compared to the national average and the requirements of the curriculum. It allows comparisons to other groups such as gender, ethnicity, or school types.
- asTTle is leading edge internationally because of the rich interpretations and specific feedback that it provides in relation to student performance (rather than simply providing a score). It identifies areas of student weakness and strength that may otherwise go unnoticed.
- asTTle presents the results in visual ways making it easier for teachers to discuss performance and the steps they're taking with students, parents, and boards of trustees.
- asTTle supports teachers by giving them direction and access to extensive and relevant Internet resources (What Next on the Te Kete Ipurangi website) for raising student achievement more efficiently.
- asTTle is the first bilingual (English and Te Reo Māori) assessment tool to be developed in New Zealand.
asTTle – in schools
Schools familiar with asTTle are enthusiastic about how it's helping teachers to focus their teaching, and engage parents and other stakeholders in discussions about student achievement. It's also becoming recognised as a powerful tool to use in strategic planning.
West Eyreton School, Rangiora
Principal Jillian Gallagher says asTTle's precision in identifying areas of weakness or strength is impressive.
"We found that while our boys in years 5 to 8 were high achievers there were a number of them who had poor attitudes to reading. So we've set about taking steps to improve their attitude to reading and to measure that change."
"In addition, the board of trustees was absolutely fascinated with the information we'd found about these boys' achievement and that meant that they were asking some really incisive questions. The charts and tables it produces give them the type of picture they need to understand the decisions we make about teaching and learning."
"asTTle has given us tremendous support and confidence in our teaching and our class programmes as it guides our decisions. It's been very satisfying knowing that our teaching is focused exactly on the students' learning needs and what they need to do next."
Campbells Bay School, Auckland
Teachers at Campbells Bay School used the reports generated by asTTle at recent parent-teacher interviews. Deputy principal, Lara Sydall says the reports helped focus discussion around children's areas of strength, areas that need work and next steps.
"There was a lot of positive feedback from parents. They said it was great to have a tool that could actually identify what their children know, but more importantly what they needed to know...the fact that it is directly linked in with the New Zealand curriculum makes it very easy for the teachers talk to."
"You can use the resources that get them [the students] ahead and they take ownership too. It helped me to be more specific about what I was doing, and it [the teaching] was more interesting as well."
asTTle – benefits
asTTle is helping schools to achieve a significant increase in student achievement
James Cook High School, Manurewa, Auckland
The school has been using asTTle to measure the progress of year 9 students in mathematics. Students were assessed and placed in three bands of performance. Two goals were set and teaching programmes developed to achieve those results.
A follow-up test showed a significant increase in student achievement across the whole year, with the results tending towards the New Zealand average for that age group.
Assess to Learn facilitator, Sue Leslie, says the biggest gains were made by Pasifika students, followed by Māori. She says the main reasons for success stem from teachers and students getting high quality information from asTTle, and students being clearly informed about the goals they were expected to achieve.
asTTle is helping teachers to quickly access the right resources
Woodstock School, Hamilton
Susan Johnson, a year 6 teacher:
"asTTle has that wonderful website What Next and it tells you what these children need next: here are the journals that focus on that for that level, here's an English online resource, and samples you can use with the kids. The biggest thing is it tells you where to go."
Campbells Bay School, Auckland
Deputy principal Lara Sydall:
"We are targeting students' learning more precisely to the child's individual needs. One of our goals is to differentiate the curriculum but when you have 32 students to one teacher that can be quite a challenge."
"asTTle has meant teachers spend less time trying to find appropriate resources for the specific needs of individuals. In addition, we can be more confident that the resources we use will be the right ones."
asTTle is helping to measure student progress. asTTle is versatile
West Eyreton School, Rangiora
Principal Jillian Gallagher:
"At West Eyreton we like asTTle and think it is a useful teaching tool because it supports teaching and learning in the following ways:
- Learning criteria can be identified then shared – with pupils and parents.
- It gives feedback through a range of useful information that is visual and clear.
- It shows teachers, parents and pupils the next steps for learning.
- It supports teachers and gives them direction/resourcing for the next steps for learning."
"We envisage that an assessment tool that achieves these things is going to make a difference to children's learning because it gives teachers good direction about what to teach... asTTle is an extremely versatile tool – it has a huge range of applications whether for students, teachers, parents or the board of trustees. We believe the work involved in keying in the data is well worth the initial effort because the information for our teaching and learning is hugely supportive."