4. “Instead of using classroom
assessments to identify
strengths and gaps in
pupils’ knowledge and
understanding... teachers
were simply tracking pupils’
progress toward target
levels.” The Commision on Assessment without
Levels Final Report, September 2015
5. “However, the system has been so
conditioned by levels that there is
considerable challenge in moving
away from them. We have been
concerned by evidence that some
schools are trying to recreate
levels based on the new national
curriculum. ”
The Commision on Assessment without
Levels Final Report, September 2015
6. “Levels did not lend themselves to assessing
the underpinning knowledge and
understanding of a concept. For example,
using certain vocabulary in written work
was indicative of a level, but did not
necessarily provide evidence of
conceptual understanding. The changes
to the new national curriculum now provide
the basis for a different, more secure
assessment based on deeper learning.”
The Commision on Assessment without
Levels Final Report, September 2015
7. Assessment is not about assigning a
number, a level or a grade to children
or to their work.
Fundamentally, it is finding out what
the children can and cannot do in
your subject.
10. Pupils’ writing is confident and
shows appropriate and imaginative
choices of style in a range of forms.
Pupils’ writing in a range of forms is
lively and thoughtful.
LEVEL 7
LEVEL 4
11. Plot and characterisation are
convincingly sustained
Plot and characterisation are
effectively constructed and
sustained.
B
A / A*
12. “Even a well crafted
statement of what you need
to get an A grade can be
loaded with subjectivity -
even in subjects such as
science.”
Tim Oates
13. Before designing or selecting an
assessment method, we should be clear:
● why pupils are being assessed
● the things which the assessment is
designed to measure
● what the assessment is intended to
achieve
● how the assessment information will
be used
18. Formatively assess in different ways:
● Question and answer
● Short quizzes
● Group discussion
● Whole class discussion
● Mark their work
● Talk to them
● Homework
● Peer feedback
● Projects and research
Use different
methods of
recording and
assessing
knowledge and
skills.
Presentations,
animations,
podcasts,
blogs...
23. ‘Can compare two fractions to decide
which is bigger’
Which is bigger:
a.3/7 or 5/7
a.5/7 or 5/9
90% of 14 year olds get
this right.
15% of 14 year olds get
this right.
24. ‘Understand what a verb is’
Which of the following words can be
used as a verb?
a. run
b. tree
c. car
d. person
e. apple
90% will get
this right
25. ‘Understand what a verb is’
In which sentence is ‘cook’ a verb?
a. I cook a meal.
b. He is a good cook.
c. The cook prepared a lovely meal
d. Every morning, they cook breakfast.
e. That restaurant has a great cook.
20% will
get this
right
26. ● Define criteria through questions,
groups of questions and question
banks
● Instead of having teachers make
a judgement about whether a
student has met each criteria,
have students answer questions
instead
28. These questions give not a
level or a number, but
reliable information on
what a student can and
cannot do.
Real data, not ‘junk data’.
Bodil Isaksen
29. ● identify trends and skills gaps
● identify misconceptions or issues
● identify where students have
started to go wrong
34. E.g. How does Dickens
create suspense in
Chapter 1 of Great
Expectations?
35. Band 5 - perceptive, sophisticated analysis of a wide range of
aspects of language supported by impressive use of textual detail
Band 4 - developed, assured analysis of a wide range of aspects
of language supported by convincing use of textual detail
Band 3 - consistent, clear understanding of a range of aspects of
language supported by relevant and appropriate textual detail
Band 2 - some familiarity with obvious features of language
supported by some relevant textual detail
Band 1 - limited awareness of obvious features of language
53. “Let’s define standards by looking
at the very best examples of work
that students can produce - and
let’s share that information with our
students and each other so that
our sights are continually being
set higher...”
Tom Sherrington, ‘Defining the Butterfly’
54. “... Let’s be very clear about the
depth and rigour of the answers
we expect students to give at each
level in our curriculum so that we’re
not accepting work they could
have produced years ago...”
Tom Sherrington, ‘Defining the Butterfly’
55. “... It should be a routine part of
departmental discourse to clarify
expectations of standards
referring to the exemplar materials
on hand.”
Tom Sherrington, ‘Defining the Butterfly’
Looking for key identifiers is misleading
It doesn't show deep understanding
All the work being done now on new curriculum, and developing pedagogy is about mastery, about deep learning, not about progress in 20mins and our assessments need to reflect that
Depth not speed of progress
the Commission describes the removal of levels as “an opportunity the profession cannot afford to miss.”
we need a system that tells us what the children can and cannot do
we can then use this knowledge to intervene and to move their understanding further.
at G&T conference, the message was that the A*s are not made in year 11, but in Year 7 and Year 8
through assessment, early intervention and challenge, we can raise the achievement of all
some will say that is what levels did; they told us what they needed to do,
they let us set targets from the next box up - that’s got to be progress hasn’t it?
but did they really?
Report is critical of NC levels - they are, and always have been, vague and unhelpful.
KS3 NC levels for writing
WJEC English language for writing
You then have to look at sub-levels - even finer distinction
This is not just a NC level problem - it is all forms of prose descriptors of performance.
It is not something that can be corrected by redrafting; it is a fundamental flaw
Many replacements use the same system
Our original ACE grids rely on precisely the same kind of performance descriptors.
They do not give us a common language, just the illusion of one.
They can’t be relied on to deliver accuracy or precision about how pupils are doing.
Tim Oates talks about the “slippery nature of standards”
I am going to come back to this again
Slight change to the report is that they slimmed down from 6 points to 4
These are the questions that the Commission suggests that we ask ourselves before we set any assessments.
So what now?
We have made some choices, and now we need to clarify the rest
I spoke last year about the need to assess the whole child - a holistic understanding of what they know and understand.
We need to think about what it looks like to be a master or an expert in your subject
Or a master in this topic?
When you reach the top of the mountain, what is the view like?
It is unlikely to be GCSE grades, or the vague and indistinct language of the descriptors or mark scheme
It will be skills; you know those skills; you are the experts
don’t try to drill those skills down to adjectives - just teach them!
Assess those skills
Doesn’t mean mark everything! Not stamps and stickers etc
Look for evidence in your children; take the opportunities to test their skills
make sure we’ve tested all the relevant parts before the final component
Also - remember feedback goes both ways
sometimes we re teach when the problem has been thr format of the final assessment - maybe a literacy issue (writing or reading) or a timing issue
Test the underpinning knowledge first, so that other aspects don’t become a proxy for learning
But I need a summative assessment
Fair enough! That doesn’t mean we need levels though-we need a summarise assessment to see what they have learned
We do need ‘blind testing’
CLs to design the tasks
removes teaching to the test - we all do it because we want our children to do well, but doing well is applying the knowledge
it then becomes a genuine proxy for the students’ understandings - reflects far more clearly GCSEs
Also builds resilience because they will fail and they will have to think for themselves
What can we do instead of drawing up grids to fit the criteria
One option is to use the questions to assess learning
We know the skills we want them to learn in the topic
ask questions that define the criteria
This is the old money version - might even be an ‘I can’ statement
As Dylan William shows, even tightly defined criterion like ‘can compare two fractions to decide which is bigger’ can be interpreted in very different ways.
What if teacher A only uses the first type of question? Teacher B uses the second?
Or the whole department only uses one kind?
Distorts the results
Not only maths
Knowledge underpins all of our subjects
We cannot give critical opinions on something we know nothing about
Trend for questions to assess higher order skills
All Ivy League universities have some kind of multiple choice test
mCQ - optional cod
The problem when you solely rely on criteria is that some people are defining the criteria as the former, some the latter.
And these criteria are pretty clear - many are far less precise.
The assessment Commission report is suggesting a national bank of questions
Writing questions can be burdensome, but share the burden
once a question has been written it can be reused, whereas judgements have to be made individually
Record the answers on a spreadsheet
Even better - use technology to record the answers.
This also applies to knowledge before essay writing - why not find out what they know before you ask them to write an essay or extended answer. It’s a perfect diagnostic to find out whether they are struggling with the knowledge or with the literacy.
Of course, the questions don’t really abolish the criteria; you can still have the criteria, but they have to be underpinned by the questions.
The difference is not the existence or otherwise of the criteria, but the evidence that each option produces.
maths misconception - expanding brackets. They can do this until they are given a negative numer in the brackets.
they then struggle because they can’t so negative numbers.
8/10 on a test tells us nothing - they might seem to have passed, so we move on,but actually the 2 wrong answers are the negative number answers
this happens across the curriculum
applies to all of our subjects - knowledge underpins our creative and higher order tasks
Sometimes that isn’t enough
Old money criteria
Define that with a question
Again, we can define the question that will test the criteria
Can be done with MCQ - optional CPD to follow!
Here, defining the question hasn’t moved us much further on - there is no simple right or wrong answer
Still stuck with vague prose descriptors - this time in a format where the change of a couple of adjectives (‘impressive’ is better than ‘convincing’ is better than ‘relevant’ and ‘appropriate’) is enough to represent a whole band’s difference
Christine Counsell has shown that you can cut up a lot of these descriptors and jumble them up and even experienced practitioners can’t put them in the right order
With these type of task, we will always have lower levels of reliability, but there are ways to be more precise.
This is the key
Cognitive science shows that we cannot make absolute judgements but we can make comparative judgements - really well!
Instead of spending time excavating the precise differences between ‘sophisticated’ and ‘assured’, we can look at a sample of a piece of work that has been agreed to be sophisticated and one that is assured
You are the experts in what the exam board want - you don’t need to boil it down to a grid
Who can define a*? You know it when you see it. It's like ingredients for the perfect symphony - there are so many ways to get there
Actually restrict our higher achievers with rubrics
Exam example - those that follow the framework often get the lower marks - focus too much on a grid and not the key skills and content
The ones who didn't care about the framework because they appreciated the beauty in the poetry, not the ones who knew that for top marks you needed an example of a metaphor...
It is impossible to boil down excellence to a list of ingredients
You know what it looks like when you see it
What does is look like?
We know the view from the mountain - what is the expert in your subject?
?
You are the experts - you know the view from the mountain
Don't try to put in a grid!
Don't play the adjective game
As a department, BEFORE you mark anything, you agree a standard for what the students should achieve
you then choose an example for each of the grades - what could a student on track for A* be expected to achieve in this assessment etc
Compare - is it better or is it worse?
You also have realistic reliable exemplars
Stops the over / under marking
Cohort comparison - more realistic
Can assure reliabilit
It's the way they will be marked at GCSEs
Example of the materials
-dept has the discussion- one of the most valuable bits
Tom Sherrington - headteacher of Highbury grove school, Islington
Previously at King Edward VI Grammar School in Chelmsford - one of the highest performing schools in the country, both at KS4 and KS5
Turning assessment into numbers sucks the meaning out of it.
Knowing 8B should level 5c or grade whatever on the rubric means nothing in terms of what they can actually do
Same questions can be asked from Y6 to Y13.
What distinguishes them is the quality of answers.
what should be expected at each level? Produce an example!
The key to this is routine moderation
every teacher should know what excellence looks like for every task
everyone chases the best
This is how they will be judged at GCSE
How could we not know...?
We will know exactly what they can and cannot do so will know what interventions to put in place