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Research

Using formative assessment effectively

Dr Stefan Speckesser (lead independent evaluator)

Research Summary

A trial was designed to identify whether use by schools of ‘Embedding Formative Assessment’ will improve children’s performance at age 16. Embedding Formative Assessment (EFA) is a two-year assessment for learning intervention. The main element is a monthly Teacher Learning Community (TLC) workshop. Each workshop involves a group of teachers feeding back on their use of formative assessment techniques. The primary research question was ‘How effective is the Embedding Formative Assessment programme compared to usual practice in terms of improving overall GCSE examination performance?’. Though practice varied across the schools, the impact was roughly equivalent to an improvement of one GCSE grade in one subject.

Researchers

Dr Stefan Speckesser (lead independent evaluator), Johnny Runge, Francesca Foliano, Dr Matthew Bursnall, Nathan Hudson-Sharp, Dr Heather Rolfe, Dr Jake Anders (National Institute of Economic and Social Research)

Research Institution

Education Endowment Foundation

What is this about?

The research set out to measure whether the Embedding Formative Assessment intervention worked under everyday conditions in a large number of schools. One hundred and forty secondary schools participated during the 2015/2016 and 2016/2017 academic years. The primary outcome was Attainment 8 GCSE scores for the 25,393 pupils who were in Year 10 (aged 14–15) at the start.

What was done?

The project was a randomised controlled trial. The resources supplied to participating schools focused on five key formative assessment strategies: ‘clarifying, sharing and understanding learning intentions’; ‘engineering effective classroom discussions and activities’; ‘providing feedback that moves learning forward’; ‘activating learners as instructional resources for one another’; and ‘activating learners as owners of their own learning’. Final GCSE scores were compared across intervention and control schools.

Main findings and outputs

  1. Students in the Embedding Formative Assessment schools made the equivalent of two additional months’ progress in their Attainment 8 GCSE score, using the standard conversion from pupil scores to months progress. This result has a very high security rating.
  2. The project found no evidence that Embedding Formative Assessment improved English or Maths GCSE attainment specifically.
  3. The additional progress made by children in the lowest third for prior attainment was greater than that made by children in the highest third. These results are less robust and have a lower security rating than the overall findings because of the smaller number of pupils.
  4. Teachers were positive about the Teacher Learning Communities. They felt that these improved their practice by allowing valuable dialogue between teachers, and encouraged experimentation with formative assessment strategies.
  5. The process evaluation indicated it may take more time for improvements in teaching practices and pupil learning strategies to feed fully into pupil attainment. Many teachers thought that younger students were more receptive to the intervention than their older and more exam-minded peers.

Relevance to RE

The research suggests that RE teachers, like teachers in general, can boost pupils’ learning and attainment by sharing experiences of assessment for learning techniques and building up good practice together, for example, through peer observation and review. The Education Endowment Foundation’s press release gives the following example:

One example of a formative assessment technique is checking on pupils’ understanding by asking all students to show their response to a question at the same time, perhaps by holding up their answers on a mini-whiteboard or slate. The teacher can decide whether they need to review the material with the whole class, to identify a small number of pupils needing individual help, or ask the pupils to discuss their answers with their peers.

Generalisability and potential limitations

The researchers noted one limitation in particular, that some of the participating schools already had some established assessment for learning practice – they suggest that in future studies, some ‘baseline’ evaluation might be done at the outset.

Find out more

The full report is freely downloadable from https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/public/files/EFA_evaluation_report.pdf

For an introduction see https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/news/real-time-knowledge-can-boost-pupils-grades-by-two-months/

 

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