Teachers and Educators’ Role in Assessment for Continuity of Learning – Step 5

Encouraging careful interpretation of collected information is an important step that early years educators and school teachers can take when creating a comprehensive and aligned assessment system to ensure continuity of learning.

STEP 5: ENOURAGE CAREFUL INTERPRETATION  

The theory

Data gathered from assessment systems must be used responsibly to inform instructional practices as well as policy and strategic decisions that will ultimately benefit child outcomes (National Research Council, 2015).

In practice

Appropriate data collection, analysis, interpretation and use will need resourcing. In many settings, a shift may be required from a focus on reporting and compliance to using assessment data to inform day-to-day instructional practices, professional learning, and organisational planning.

If data collected through child assessments is to lead to beneficial change, professionals must be trained not only in how to administer them but also in how to carefully interpret their results and apply that information in shaping instructional practices and learning environments. They will need the time and structures to support them (National Research Council, 2015).

Further learning

To learn more about the steps early years educators and school teachers can take to create a comprehensive and aligned assessment system, download our free publication Towards Continuity of Learning: Rethinking Assessment HERE

Good assessment is assessment that defies boundaries, whether they’re educational boundaries, or health boundaries. It presents data in a way that anyone who’s working with children can shift their trajectories for better outcomes. The strength in the assessment is what you do with the data, not the data in and of itself. It should be a package that empowers educators to support children.

Cathrine Neilsen-Hewett