How does the Assessment Lead Programme enhance teaching and learning?

Since launching in October 2017, over 800 teachers and leaders have joined the Assessment Lead Programme over the first four cohorts. As a programme of professional development which is sustained over three terms, it takes time to generate feedback on how practice is changing as a result. However, we’re increasingly hearing from a growing number of teachers and leaders about how they’ve utilised what they’ve learnt to enhance teaching and learning – and we wanted to share this practice in this short blog post.

The Assessment Lead Programme has helped teachers and their schools enhance teaching and learning by:

1. Designing low-stakes quizzes which help:

• Ascertain the strength of pupils’ prior knowledge and skill, identify misconceptions efficiently
• Recap and retrieve content previously taught to aid and check retention
• Efficiently gain a snapshot of understanding mid-way through a sequence of learning without disrupting lesson flow
• Promote targeted teaching by informing next steps planning decisions
• Reduce marking workload by using curriculum-focused tests to check and monitor progress; provide whole-class feedback on common mistakes and misconceptions

2. Improving the quality of end of stage/phase tests to better discriminate what pupils know and can do

3. Designing and developing a reusable bank of topic- and subject-specific questions that help to:

• Reveal pupils’ misconceptions quickly and stimulate appropriate levels of cognitive challenge in order to change long-term memory
• Make teaching more responsive by understanding efficiently and effectively if pupils are ready to move on

4. Improving the quality of information teachers put into monitoring systems and assessment tools such as Plickers, Kahoot or Quizlet

These systems are only as good as the information you put into them!

5. Rethinking and reforming department/phase and whole-school assessment practice and policy based on the best available evidence

This makes assessment more manageable, meaningful and efficient for teachers, school leaders, students and parents.

On a different but not entirely separate note, we’ve been encouraged to hear feedback from a partner school who were commended by Ofsted for their evidence-based assessment approach! You can find feedback from schools here.

Do you want to enhance assessment knowledge, skill and confidence in your school? Join the next cohort of the Assessment Lead Programme and #AssessBetter!