‘Raising the Bar’ on Assessment and Reporting John Channer

Questions for you What more can we do to engage parents and get them to support their child’s learning? Do you see any holes in our assessment approach? How can we further improve it?

Fraser Crescent School is a Learning Community where we are: Future Focussed, Respectful, Active Adventurers, who are… Striving for Success, Enthusiastic and Resourceful.

School Context (in the early days) -ERO visits for 3 consecutive years (x2 supplementary) -Major issues with quality of teaching in many classrooms – ‘children learning despite the teaching’ (x3) -Significant underachievement issues when results were compared to national data. This conflicted with what teachers were saying. 75% Vs 25% -Dysfunctional school culture -Considerable behavioural issues (some even involved the children!).

Our Assessment Principles Assessment is part of the teaching process Regular reporting – each term Show the learning (samples) and tell it (report). High teacher accountability (can’t fudge it!) Written with and for the children Plain language, jargon free Where the child is at, where they should be, what they can do and next steps. Let parents know what they can do to support

Timeline Report and work samples each term Term 1 conference – goal setting for the year. - N/S target letter sent home. Term 3 conference – checking progress on goals Term 4 letter – achievement in relation to N/S goals. * We have a success criteria for conferences and these are often observed.

Fraser Crescent School 2011 Student Targets May 2011 – For Children in Years 4, 5 and 6 Name of Student: __________________________ Are you happy with your child’s progress? Aimed at getting parents to talk with the teachers To make a big improvement with children who are Well Below or Below with their learning, we need your help! What is the school doing in order to address these goals? Sharing annual plan goals which address achievement issues. What can you do as parents? Give parents some pointers as to how they can better support their child

Support for Parents (and kids)

The Clubs Reading, Writing and Maths Clubs 5 Sessions for each. One focus each term. Try and dovetail with reports. About half the children attend Lots of parents, caregivers and siblings attend Principles: Make it fun and show parents how they can support at home.

The Children Mostly write their own reports – from progress against success criteria. Use reports in different ways – stuck on desks, goals in reading bags etc. Highly aware of their levels and next steps. Children are always interviewed as part of classroom observations.

Key Competencies and FRASER Monitoring Online ePortfolio using Ultranet

The Assessment Process Explained - the build up to reports (Teaching 101) Undertake an initial sample. ‘Ok children, I want you to write an explanation about how you get ready for school in the morning’. Use the initial sample to help structure your teaching programme. This will constantly be revised to meet the needs of the children. Co-construct the learning with the students from appropriate examples, models etc. This will often lead to the development of specific success criteria to support the children. Use pictures, examples, and other scaffolds if required to support the children to understand the success criteria. Share the learning – do this all the way through. Get the children talking about their learning and reflecting on it. Plan and prepare for assessments (where possible). The development of marking sheets, templates etc, will help you to clearly demonstrate the desired learning to both students and parents. It will also save time when marking. Don’t try and cover too much. Go deep, not wide. Think about the transformational change curve and the children who never get out of ‘The Pit’. It is vitally important that the children get lots of opportunities to practice, and receive feedback which identifies next learning steps. Mark against success criteria, and provide verbal comments about the success criteria. Children also need to be self and peer assessing on a constant basis. If children are unable to self assess, then the success criteria is not supportive of their learning. Success criteria often requires modification. Also, extension success criteria may be needed for some children. Collect samples along the way that SHOW THE LEARNING. Show improvement. Your job as a teacher is to add value.

What now – What Next Careful about not slipping back to the old ways where teacher judgment (OTJ,s) are hugely different from test results. Continue looking at new and better ways to monitor the key comps Improved goal setting for children in years 1-3. Aligning long term BOT targets, with class targets Moving to more ‘real-time’ reporting, using LMS Explore how Chn can potentially use SMS. Developing a strategic strand around working with parents and caregivers.

National Standards Like a stake in the ground idea Like changes in reporting, plain language, regular. Focus on Moderation, in and between schools. (Upper Hutt schools moderation cluster) Like the move away from so much reliance on tests, using other sources. Some good questions in the Self Review Tools, have strengthened our processes.

Further Links parents-families-and-whanau/School- stories/Fraser-Crescent-School A little more information on our reporting process. parents-families-and-whanau/School- stories/Fraser-Crescent-School aspx?ArticleId=7963 Article on our clubs and working with parents aspx?ArticleId=7963