Virginia Department of Education’s Training and Technical Assistance Center at Virginia Commonwealth University

Why are we here? According to Hattie (2009) providing formative evaluation has the greatest impact on student achievement (0.9). (Appendix B) School leaders can impact student achievement when quality instruction is the focus. The largest impact on teacher knowledge and/or behavior: observation of actual classroom methods, video/audio feedback and practice (Hattie, 2009, p.120). Why are we here?

Build Common Understanding  Formative evaluation – ongoing data collection directly linked to the teaching and learning process (Wiliam, 2011)  Formative assessment/formative feedback/assessment for learning – “activities undertaken by teachers, and/or their students, which provide information to be used as feedback to modify the teaching and learning activities in which they are engaged” (Wiliam, 2011, p. 37) Building Common Understanding

Formative Assessment “Formative assessment is used to describe the function that evidence from the assessment actually serves, rather than the assessment itself” (Wiliam, 2001, p. 43)

So what?  What happens when formative assessment is not used to inform instruction?

What does this mean for students with disabilities ?  Systematic formative evaluation procedures significantly increased student achievement for students with mild disabilities. (ES.70)  Students with mild disailities who are monitored systematically and IEPs are developed formatively over time will perform better than students not monitored in this way. (ES.70)  The use of data-evaluation rules raise the effect size to.90 or higher. Fuchs & Fuchs (1986)

Self-reflection Activity  What beliefs, attitudes and practices do my collaborative teachers need to implement formative assessment effectively?  What infrastructure supports do collaborative teachers need to be able to work collaboratively effectively?

Providing feedback to teachers on what is happening is key so they can self-question (p.181)  Where am I going with this approach?  How am I going to make changes?  Where should I go next to meet the needs of the learners? Answers should be related to task, process, self-regulation, and self. (p. 177) (Hattie, 2009)

Activity  As a group determine questions you could pose to the teachers to encourage self-reflection and formative feedback on the lesson you observed. CUPS  What would you want to see in the form of formative assessment?

References & Resources  Fuchs, L. S., & Fuchs, D. (1986). Effects of systemic formative evaluation: A meta-analysis. Exceptional Children, 53(3),  Hattie, J. (2009). Visible learning: A synthesis of over 800 meta- analyses relating to achievement. New York, NY: Routledge.  Wiliam, D. (2011). Embedded formative assessment. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.