Improving outcomes and closing achievement gaps: the role of assessment Dylan Wiliam UCET Symposium March 2009, Belfast .

Improving outcomes and closing achievement gaps: the role of assessment

Dylan Wiliam

UCET Symposium March 2009, Belfast

www.dylanwiliam.net

Overview of presentationWhy raising achievement is important

Why investing in teachers is the answer

Why formative assessment should be the focus

Why teacher learning communities should be the mechanism

How we can put this into practice

Raising achievement mattersFor individuals Increased lifetime salary Improved healthLonger life

For societyLower criminal justice costsLower health-care costs Increased economic growth

Where’s the solution?Structure

Small secondary schools “All-through” schools

Alignment Curriculum reform Textbook replacement

Governance Specialist schools Academies

Technology Computers Interactive white-boards

School effectivenessThree generations of school effectiveness researchRaw results approaches

Different schools get different results Conclusion: Schools make a difference

Demographic-based approaches Demographic factors account for most of the variation Conclusion: Schools don’t make a difference

Value-added approaches School-level differences in value-added are relatively small Classroom-level differences in value-added are large Conclusion: An effective school is a school full of effective classrooms

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Within schoolsBetween schools explained by social background of schoolsBetween schools explained by social background of studentsBetween schools not explained by social background

Within schools

Between schools

OECD PISA data from McGaw, 2008

Teacher quality matters…

Barber & Mourshed, 2007

Where’s the solution?Structure Small high schools K-8 schools

Alignment Curriculum reform Textbook replacement

Governance Charter Schools Vouchers

Technology Computers Interactive white-boards

School effectivenessThree generations of school effectiveness researchRaw results approaches

Different schools get different results Conclusion: Schools make a difference

Demographic-based approaches Demographic factors account for most of the variation Conclusion: Schools don’t make a difference

Value-added approaches School-level differences in value-added are relatively small Classroom-level differences in value-added are large Conclusion: An effective school is a school full of effective classrooms

It’s the classroom…In the UK, variability at the classroom level is up to 4 times that at school level

It’s not class sizeIt’s not the between-class grouping strategyIt’s not the within-class grouping strategyIt’s the teacherHaving a good rather than weak teacher (±1sd) increases performance by

more than one GCSE gradeBeing taught by the best teacher in a group of 50 means that a student will

learn at four times the rate of a student taught by the worst teacher in that group

…but more for some than others

Achievement gaps

Disadvantaged background (mother’s education)

Poor behavior

Teacher’s provision of instructional support

High No (good)Average No (good)Low Yes (bad)

High Yes (bad)Average Yes (bad)Low Yes (bad)

Teacher’s provision of emotional support

High Yes (bad)Average Yes (bad)Low Yes (bad)

High No (good)Average Yes (bad)Low Yes (bad)

Impact of teacher quality on student outcomes (Hamre & Pianta, 2005))

Teacher qualityA labor force issue with 2 (non-exclusive) solutionsReplace existing teachers with better ones?

Important, but very slow, and of limited impact Teach First Gradually raising the bar for entry to teaching

Improve the effectiveness of existing teachers The “love the one you’re with” strategy It can be done

Provided we focus rigorously on the things that matter Even when they’re hard to do

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Raising the bar for entry to teaching…

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Mean: 50 Mean: 55

Lowest 30% removed

Impact on achievementRaising the bar for entry into the profession so that we no longer recruit the lowest performing 30% of teachers would over twenty to thirty years, increase average teacher quality by 0.5 standard deviations.

This would increase student achievement by 0.1 standard deviations, or an increase of the speed of student learning of 25-30%.

20-25%Total “explained” difference

<5%Further professional qualifications (MA, NBPTS)

10-15%Pedagogical content knowledge

<5%Advanced content matter knowledge

The ‘dark matter’ of teacher qualityTeachers make a differenceBut what makes the difference in teachers?

Cost/effect comparisonsIntervention Extra months of

learning per yearCost/yr

Class-size reduction (by 30%) 4 £20k

Increase teacher content knowledge from weak to strong

2 ?

Formative assessment/Assessment for learning

8 £2k

Effective pedagogyKey concept:Teachers do not create learningLearners create learning

Teaching is the engineering of effective learning environments

Key features of learning power environments:Create student engagement (pedagogies of engagement)Well-regulated (pedagogies of contingency)Create habits of mind (pedagogies of formation)

Why pedagogies of engagement?Intelligence is partly inheritedSo what?

Intelligence is partly environmentalEnvironment creates intelligence Intelligence creates environment

Learning environmentsHigh cognitive demand InclusiveObligatory

Why pedagogies of contingency?Long-cycle Span: across units, terms Length: four weeks to one year Impact: Student monitoring; curriculum alignmentMedium-cycle Span: within and between teaching units Length: one to four weeks Impact: Improved, student-involved, assessment; teacher cognition about learningShort-cycle Span: within and between lessons Length:

day-by-day: 24 to 48 hours minute-by-minute: 5 seconds to 2 hours

Impact: classroom practice; student engagement

Unpacking formative assessmentKey processesEstablishing where the learners are in their learningEstablishing where they are goingWorking out how to get there

ParticipantsTeachersPeersLearners

Aspects of formative assessment

Where the learner is going

Where the learner is How to get there

TeacherClarify and share

learning intentions

Engineering effective discussions, tasks and

activities that elicit evidence of learning

Providing feedback that moves learners

forward

PeerUnderstand and share learning

intentions

Activating students as learningresources for one another

LearnerUnderstand

learning intentionsActivating students as owners

of their own learning

Five “key strategies”…Clarifying, understanding, and sharing learning intentionscurriculum philosophy

Engineering effective classroom discussions, tasks and activities that elicit evidence of learningclassroom discourse, interactive whole-class teaching

Providing feedback that moves learners forward feedback

Activating students as learning resources for one another collaborative learning, reciprocal teaching, peer-assessment

Activating students as owners of their own learningmetacognition, motivation, interest, attribution, self-assessment

(Wiliam & Thompson, 2007)

…and one big ideaUse evidence about learning to adapt teaching and learning to meet student needs

Keeping Learning on Track (KLT)A pilot guides a plane or boat toward its destination by taking constant readings and making careful adjustments in response to wind, currents, weather, etc.

A KLT teacher does the same:Plans a carefully chosen route ahead of time (in essence building the track)Takes readings along the way Changes course as conditions dictate

Putting it into practice

Implementing formative assessment requires changing teacher habitsTeachers “know” most of this already

So the problem is not a lack of knowledge

It’s a lack of understanding what it means to do formative assessment

That’s why telling teachers what to do doesn’t work

Experience alone is not enough—if it were, then the most experienced teachers would be the best teachers—we know that’s not true (Hanushek, 2005; Day, 2006)

People need to reflect on their experiences in systematic ways that build their accessible knowledge base, learn from mistakes, etc. (Bransford, Brown & Cocking, 1999)

Teacher learning takes timeTo put new knowledge to work, to make it meaningful and accessible when you need it, requires practice.A teacher doesn’t come at this as a blank slate. Not only do teachers have their current habits and ways of teaching—

they’ve lived inside the old culture of classrooms all their lives: every teacher started out as a student!

New knowledge doesn’t just have to get learned and practiced, it has to go up against long-established, familiar, comfortable ways of doing things that may not be as effective, but fit within everyone’s expectations of how a classroom should work.

It takes time and practice to undo old habits and become graceful at new ones. Thus… Professional development must be sustained over time

Taking it to scale

Two opposing factors in any school reformNeed for flexibility to adapt to local conditions, resources, etc

Implies there is appropriate flexibility built into the reform

Need to maintain fidelity to core principles, or theory of action of the reform, if it is to achieve desired outcomes Implies you have a well-thought-out theory of action

“Tight but loose”Some reforms are too loose (e.g., the ‘Effective schools’ movement)

Others are too tight (e.g., Montessori Schools)

The “tight but loose” formulation

… combines an obsessive adherence to central design principles (the “tight” part) with accommodations to the needs, resources, constraints, and particularities that occur in any school or district (the “loose” part), but only where these do not conflict with the theory of action of the intervention.

Signature pedagogies

In Law

In Medicine

Teacher learning communitiescontradict teacher isolation

reprofessionalize teaching by valuing teacher expertise

deprivatize teaching so that teachers’ strengths and struggles become known

offer a steady source of support for struggling teachers

grow expertise by providing a regular space, time, and structure for that kind of systematic reflecting on practice

facilitate sharing of untapped expertise residing in individual teachers

build the collective knowledge base in a school

A “signature pedagogy” for teacher learning?Monthly TLC meeting that follows the same structure and sequence

Activity 1: Introduction & Housekeeping (5-10 minutes)

Activity 2: How’s It Going (35-50 minutes)

Activity 3: New Learning about formative assessment (20-45 minutes)

Activity 4: Personal Action Planning (10 minutes)

Activity 5: Summary of Learning (5 minutes)

Peer observations between TLC meetings

Run to the agenda of the observed, not the observer

SummaryRaising achievement is important

Raising achievement requires improving teacher quality

Improving teacher quality requires teacher professional development

To be effective, teacher professional development must addressWhat teachers do in the classroomHow teachers change what they do in the classroom

Assessment for learning + Teacher learning communitiesA point of (uniquely?) high leverageA “Trojan Horse” into wider issues of pedagogy, psychology, and curriculum