Evidence Based Education and the North East Research Network had their first joint event on Saturday, where EBE delivered bespoke and practical assessment training for teachers in the region, with a specific focus on designing great assessment.
Six teachers from the network joined our Head of Assessment, Jessica, at our Sunderland office for a day of professional learning. The day, focused on the pragmatics of assessment in the classroom, was split into two: the morning session centred around the four pillars of assessment (discover more about purpose, reliability, validity and value in this ebook), and in the afternoon, participants put their learning to good use, designing great-quality multiple-choice questions for their own classroom use, but also to be used in a question bank for our Assessment Academy programmes.
Just as assessment is a process, not an event, so learning about what constitutes good assessment takes time, too. This training day wasn’t seen as a silver bullet to ‘solve’ assessment, but is the start of a process of professional inquiry, iteration and improvement for the teachers involved. We hope it is also the start of a close partnership with the North East Research Network.
The session was designed to be an intimate workshop and was full to the brim with assessment theory and research and – of course – plenty of practical input, challenge and debate. The group discussed analysing data to improve the decisions taken from assessment in the classroom, mitigating bias, and analysing the purpose of assessmentβ¦ No marking necessary!
In-person events are always popular, and if your school or network might benefit from our facilitated teacher assessment training sessions, do get in touch here.
Our Assessment Academy responds directly to the findings and recommendations of a government review of Initial Teacher Training, which found that:
Of all areas of ITT content, we believe the most significant improvements are needed for training in assessment. Findings from the NAHT Commission as well as Ofsted have also found weaknesses in assessment training.
We currently run two acclaimed e-learning opportunities to improve the quality of information you use to improve learning for your students:
Assessment Lead Programme is an innovative programme designed to empower school leaders to improve whole-school assessment literacy through a yearlong, collaborative online course. It is built to have whole-school impact, and has been cited as “the best CPD we’ve ever had” by a course participant.
Assessment Essentials, meanwhile, concentrates on the best research around assessment to upskill every classroom teacher to assess better over a flexible 10-week course. Those who have been through the course have found it to be “a great PD package for anyone serious about developing their understanding of classroom-based assessment”.
To find out more about in-person assessment training for teachers and leaders at your institution, or to request a demonstration of any of the programmes mentioned, contact us using this form.
