Building Teacher Capacity for Formative Assessment at Scale

• In Event: Sustainable Professional Development for Data-Informed Instructional Improvement

Abstract

Purpose

Classroom formative assessment is a powerful lever for improving student achievement (Black & Wiliam, 1998). Formative assessment involves collecting and interpreting evidence about student learning during the ongoing flow of activity and interactions in the classroom and becomes formative when a response is made to the evidence, either by the teacher, the student, or both, that affects future learning. For a majority of teachers in the US, successfully implementing formative assessment requires them to make considerable changes in their classroom practice over time. The purpose of this paper is to compare three different professional learning approaches for teachers’ implementation of formative assessment in their classrooms, and to consider the potential of the approaches for scale-up.

Theoretical framework

In a reconceptualization of scale, Coburn (2003) argued for alternative considerations to a sole focus on quantitative indicators - increasing the number of teachers, schools, or districts involved in a reform– to paying attention to the nature of change in classroom instruction and the depth of implementation, consequential change in classrooms, sustainability, and shift in authority over time. The approaches to professional learning and teachers’ perceptions of what worked and the changes that occurred in their classroom practice will be considered in the context of Coburn’s framework for scale.

Methods and data sources

The paper will compare and contrast three different approaches used in the US by states and districts for scaling-up formative assessment implementation. The approaches differ in design but share a number of characteristics of effective professional learning, recently summarized from a review of 35 methodologically rigorous studies (Darling-Hammond, Hyler, & Gardner, 2017). Teachers’ perspectives of the effectiveness of the approach they participated in to support their use of formative assessment were obtained through surveys (n=900) and descriptive statistical analysis of responses was conducted. Several teachers also provided commentary on the kinds of changes they had made in classroom practice to incorporate formative assessment and thematic analysis was conducted.

Results

Results revealed several common features across the approaches that contributed to teachers’ views on how successful each approach was in supporting their formative assessment implementation, and how willing they were to sustain motivation for continued participation as a consequence: 1) collaboration with colleagues; 2) support from school/district leadership; and 3) opportunities for feedback and reflection on their implementation. Changes in teacher practice will be illustrated in the paper with summaries of the commentaries teachers provided.

Educational importance

The findings of this paper have implications for teacher learning and for scaling-up the effective use of classroom formative assessment. Findings suggest that teachers are willing to make commitment to professional learning in support of formative assessment when the design embodies the features described in the results section above. They also suggest that teachers made some significant changes to their classroom practice as a consequence of their participation. The approaches reported in this paper can be employed at the school and district levels and can also be used by state education agencies. The potential for scaling-up formative assessment is promising.

Author

• Margaret Heritage, Heritage Consulting