This document discusses how assessment data can be used by teachers, school leaders, and system leaders to improve teaching practice and student outcomes. It describes a cycle of inquiry where assessment data is analyzed to identify student and teacher needs, inform changes to practice, and evaluate impact on learning. Key aspects include having relevant data, developing inquiry skills, and using evidence-informed conversations to deepen professional knowledge and refine teaching skills at all levels of the education system.

1. Using Assessment Data for
Improving Teaching Practice
ACER Conference
17 - 18 August 2009
Professor Helen Timperley
Faculty of Education
University of Auckland

2. Formative assessment for students
Allows them to answer the
questions
Where am I going?
How am I doing?
Where to next?
Hattie & Timperley (2007)

3. Formative assessment for
TEACHERS
Allows them to answer the
questions
Where am I going?
How am I doing?
Where to next?

4. Required Conditions
• Relevant assessment data
• Beliefs, knowledge and skills of
teachers
• Beliefs, knowledge and skills of
school leaders

5. Relevant Assessment Data
• Provides teachers with curriculum relevant
information about;
– Where their students are at
– What their students need to learn next
– In a timely manner
• Can be of many different kinds

6. Beliefs, knowledge and skills of
teachers
• Inquiry habit of mind
– Data can inform teaching and learning (not labels
for students)
• Sufficient knowledge of the meaning of the
data to make appropriate adjustments to
practice
• Sufficient pedagogical content knowledge
to make relevant adjustments to practice

7. Beliefs, knowledge and skills of
leaders
• Skilled enough to have conversations
about the data with teachers;
• Inquiry habit of mind
– Data can inform teaching and learning
• Know enough to lead the changes
required for teachers to use data;
• Engage in systematic evidence-informed
cycles of inquiry

8. Relationships of Respect and
Challenge
• Context for learning is social if to have a
system change rather than patches of
brilliance
– Probing meanings, challenging interpretation
of the evidence and reasoning
– Respect for the capacity of all to learn and
improve

9. Evidence-Informed Conversations about Data
Relationships of Respect and Challenge
Evidence-informed
Conversations
Using Relevant Data Inquiry Habit of Mind
Earl and Timperley (2000)

10. How the Process Can Work:
Two Sources of Evidence
1. The theory
Professional Learning and Development Best
Evidence Synthesis iteration (2008)
2. The practice
Literacy Professional Development Project (LPDP)
in NZ
– 300 schools
– On average 2-3 times expected rate of progress
– Bottom 20% 3-4 times expected rate of progress

11. Teacher inquiry and knowledge-building cycle
to promote valued student outcomes
What
knowledge
and skills do
our students
need? What knowledge
and skills do we
as teachers
need?
What has
been the
impact of our
changed
actions? Deepen
professional
knowledge and
refine skills
Engage
students in new
learning
experiences

12. Teachers Inquiring into Students’
Knowledge and Skills
• What do the students already know?
• What sources of evidence have we used?
• What do the students need to learn and
do?
• How do we build on what they know?

13. Within the LPDP Project
• Students assessed using assessment
Tools for Teaching and learning (asTTle)
• Facilitated interpretation of how to score it
and what the results mean with teachers
and leaders
-at the same time as …

14. Teacher inquiry and knowledge-building cycle
to promote valued student outcomes
What
knowledge
and skills do
our students
need? What knowledge
and skills do we
as teachers
need?
What has
been the
impact of our
changed
actions? Deepen
professional
knowledge and
refine skills
Engage
students in new
learning
experiences

15. Teachers Inquiring into Own
Knowledge and Skills
• How have we contributed to existing
student outcomes?
• What do we already know that we can use
to promote improved outcomes for
students?
• What do we need to learn and do to
promote these outcomes?
• What sources of evidence / knowledge
can we utilise?

16. Within the LPDP Project
• With expert facilitators, the teachers:
• Relate student data to programme
emphases;
• Respond to a scenario of (mostly
ineffective) practice and discuss results;
• Interpret a set of hypothetical data and
discuss different interpretations
Facilitators also observe teaching practice
and analyse it with teachers

17. Teacher inquiry and knowledge-building cycle
to promote valued student outcomes
What
knowledge
and skills do
our students
need? What knowledge
and skills do we
as teachers
need?
What has
been the
impact of our
changed
actions? Deepen
professional
knowledge and
refine skills
Engage
students in new
learning
experiences

18. Deepen Professional Knowledge
and Refine Skills
Three principles:
• Focus on the teaching / learning links;
– Explicit that the purpose is to improve learning
• Integrate knowledge and skills
– Curriculum, assessment, pedagogical
– Theory and practice (over-assimilation)
– Multiple opportunities to learn and apply (1 – 2 years)
• Engage teachers’ existing ideas about students,
assessment, curriculum and how to teach it

19. Three Fields of Knowledge
(NCSL)
What Is Known What We Know
The knowledge from The knowledge of
theory, research and those involved.
best practice What practitioners
know
New Knowledge
The new knowledge
that we can create
together through
collaborative work

20. Within the LPDP Project
• Students are the “touchstone” throughout;
• Facilitators work with school literacy
leaders to develop teachers’ pedagogical
content knowledge;
• Flexible but specific to develop adaptive
expertise;
• Teachers’ beliefs (theories of practice)
engaged

21. Promoting change in teachers’
beliefs and assumptions
Current
Develop
assumptions
new
challenged
knowledge
and skills
Observeresulting Make small
improvements in changes to
student outcomes practices

22. Teacher inquiry and knowledge-building cycle
to promote valued student outcomes
What
knowledge
and skills do
our students
need? What knowledge
and skills do we
as teachers
need?
What has
been the
impact of our
changed
actions? Deepen
professional
knowledge and
refine skills
Engage
students in new
learning
experiences

23. Judging Impact
• How effective is what we have learned and
done been in promoting our students’
learning and well-being?
– Means the use of assessment information on
a daily, weekly, term by term and annual
basis
• Using a range of assessment tools

25. Assessment Information is NOT a
single event
• Pervades all aspects of the cycle
– Identifying what students need to learn
– Identifying what teachers need to learn
– Checking impact of changes to practice

26. Beliefs, knowledge and Skills of
School Leaders
• Teachers cannot do it alone
• To lead effectively, leaders must know
their class so they can:
– Create a vision of new possibilities
– Lead the learning
– Organise the learning opportunities

27. FIVE DIMENSIONS OF EFFECTIVE LEADERSHIP
Derived from Quantitative Studies Linking Leadership with Student Outcomes
1. Establishing Goals and
Expectations 0.42
2. Resourcing Strategically 0.31
3. Planning, Coordinating and
Evaluating Teaching and the 0.42
Curriculum
4. Promoting and Participating in
Teacher Learning and 0.84
Development
5. Ensuring an Orderly and
Supportive Environment 0.27
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1
Effect Size

28. If leaders are to lead the learning:
Must know their class of teachers
• What do the teachers already know?
• What do the leaders need to learn and do
to make a difference to teacher learning
and valued student outcomes?
• How are the leaders systematically
building on what the teachers already
know and can do?
• How are they checking impact

29. Leaders’ inquiry and knowledge-building cycle
to promote valued teaching practices and
student outcomes
What
knowledge
and skills do
our teachers
need? What knowledge
and skills do we
as leaders need?
What has
been the
impact of our
changed
actions? Deepen
professional
knowledge and
refine skills
Engage
teachers in new
learning
experiences

30. Within the LPDP
• Literacy leaders willingly engage and
recognise their need to learn if they are to
teach others
• Principals less so
– Tend to focus on structures and processes to
promote others’ learning

31. What about us as system leaders?
• Who is your class and how well do you
know them as learners?
• What do we need to learn and do to make
a difference in ways that impact on valued
student outcomes?
• How are we systematically building on
what those for whom we have
responsibility already know and can do?
• How are we checking impact?

32. System leaders’ inquiry and knowledge-building
cycle
to promote valued teaching practices and
student outcomes
What
knowledge
and skills does
our class
need? What knowledge
and skills do we
as system leaders
need?
What has
been the
impact of our
changed
actions? Deepen
professional
knowledge and
refine skills
Engage our
class in new
learning
experiences

33. Conclusion
• Teachers can use data to improve
teaching practice in ways that work for
students
• Requires
– Curriculum-relevant assessments
– All layers of the system to know their learners
– Development of the beliefs, knowledge and
skills needed for each to enact their
responsibility throughout the system

34. References
Earl, L. & Timperley, H. (2009). Professional
Learning Conversations: Challenges in Using
Evidence. Springer.
Timperley, H. & Parr, J. (2009). Chain of Influence
from Policy to Practice in the New Zealand
Literacy Strategy. Research Papers in
Education, 24(2), 135-154,
Timperley, H., Wilson, A., Barrar, H. & Fung, I.
(2008) Teacher Professional Learnng and
Development: A Best Evidence Iteration.
http://educationcounts.edcentre.govt.na/goto/BE
S