If the primary purpose of assessment is to improve students’ learning and teachers’ teaching, then how can this be achieved if schools don’t have the right assessment tools? We’re not just talking about tools that dive deep into assessment data, you also need the knowledge and experience to interpret the data to drive better instruction.
It also takes experience to critically review your current assessment tools. Ask yourself what is the purpose of assessment in your school? What tools are you using and why? Is there evidence of their validity and reliability? These are all important aspects of any robust assessment program.
Often we find schools using similar assessment tools that test the same skills and knowledge and are primarily screening for who’s failing. The information gathered often fails to connect back to classroom instruction.
What’s missing is the diagnostic and formative assessment that dives deep down into the data to pinpoint the gaps in learning, so teachers know why some students are failing (not just who) and what they need to do about it.
beagle supports schools to critically review their assessment tools to make sure they have enough of the right tools to drive classroom instruction and measure the impact of their teaching. That’s not more assessment, that’s smarter assessment.
There’s global inequality in education and we know there’s a the gap in student achievement that continues to grow. You just have to look at the evidence from international studies such as PIRLS. We need to be focusing on closing this gap and the answer must lie in improving the measurement of our impact on students’ learning.
John Hattie, a professor of education and the director of the Melbourne Educational Research Institute at the University of Melbourne, says ‘the major purpose of assessment in schools should be to provide interpretative information to teachers and school leaders about their impact on students, so that these educators have the best information possible about what steps to take with instruction and how they need to change and adapt.’
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How does beagle help? beagle transforms a school’s assessment data into powerful insights and differentiated instructional plans – saving teachers hours of time and the years of experience and knowledge required to interpret the data. That means a quicker response to learning needs and more time to teach.
Contact the beagle team today to book a demo. See how beagle can drive your school’s success and close the gaps in learning.
