Case study of ARB use at Upper Hutt School

Established in 1864, Upper Hutt School is a contributing decile 7 school located in a main urban area. The school has approximately 320 students, 12 full-time teachers, and 4 part-time teachers.

In 2002 the school staff began an Assessment for Better Learning/Assess to Learn (ABeL/AtoL) contract which is continuing in 2003. As part of this contract the whole school is engaging in an extensive review of their assessment practices. Teachers and school managers described to us how there was a general feeling they were over-assessing, and that some of the results they recorded were not used to feedback into teaching.

.it [the review] had to come as teachers were overloaded.A key issue for teachers is manageability – in the past we have been guilty of overkill.

We have been working towards cutting down the workload and refining and refocussing on what is important. A huge part of that is student feedback.

As a result of this contract, staff have worked together with an AtoL facilitator to examine their philosophies of learning and share ideas on what was essential in terms of assessment, and how this feeds back into teaching and learning. From these discussions the assessment programme is being refined. The refinements so far include:

ARB resources are being used in the drive to improve assessment practices at Upper Hutt School. ARB tasks were part of the recent school-wide focus on writing skills and are used in various ways to provide feedback to students about their learning.

Although Upper Hutt School staff have been through a number of recent changes in their assessment practices, the main school-wide components of their programme have remained constant. The school has a strong school-wide assessment focus and uses a number of externally developed assessment tools, including ARB resources, to assist in this programme. Others tools used include SEA, STAR, National Exemplars, and NEMP tasks.

Assessment results have been improving over the last few years in literacy and numeracy. Staff consider that these changes can be attributed to a large extent to the information they gain from the school-wide assessment programme which is used to plan next step teaching.

As part of this programme an assessment timetable is produced each year which outlines the key assessments to be undertaken in each curriculum and essential skills area. The school collects school-wide information in the key areas of literacy and numeracy. This information is used to identify strengths and weakness and priorities for teaching. As the principal notes: "every review tells us something, and we change something".

For the last four or five years all year 3, 4, 5, and 6 students have completed a school-wide mathematics test in number (computation/problem-solving) and all year 4, 5, and 6 students, a test in place value. These tests are repeated each year to allow for comparisons over time. The principal used ARB resources, and some NEMP tasks to develop these tests.

You can pick and choose bits and pieces from the ARBs that fit your particular objectives. The ARBs provide a better match with the learning objectives that we are focussing on. They give a "ring of confidence".

The number test is developed from the ARBs using a search tailored to specific objectives, and the difficulty level (see the Difficulty Level information box) and diagnostic information available on the ARB scoring guides.

Resources are selected that reflect the school's current focus, and that cover a range of difficulties. A level 2 and a level 3 number test were developed that contain approximately 20 questions; about 55% are easy, 30% moderate, and 15% difficult or very difficult. A scoring guide for each test is developed from the ARB scoring guides.

The overall percentage correct for each student is recorded along with the percentage of students getting each question correct. This information is commented on and a summary is presented to teachers that includes:

Percentage correct for individual students and by room, gender, ethnicity, year level, total cohort, and in comparison to previous years;
Students showing "flair and ability" or "requiring support and guidance";
Information about the questions that students found the most difficult;
Teaching priorities for later in the year, based on an analysis of the areas that students found easy or difficult; and
Information about strategies to use in teaching to the areas students found difficult.

The results are used to evaluate what level students are working at, individual results are discussed with students, and the information from these assessments is reported to parents. The summaries are presented to the Board of Trustees and comparisons with the ARB performance data are made to show how students at Upper Hutt School compare to other students nationally.

In 2002, as part of the AtoL contract, the staff had a school-wide focus on writing skills for which they made use of writing tasks and exemplars from the ARBs (see the Exemplars information box) and the National Exemplars Project.

As part of this focus, the ARB poetic writing task, "The Worst Haircut Ever" (WL3228), which is shown below, was completed by all middle and senior school students at the start of the year.

Teachers used the ARB levels-based scoring guides to assess students' writing for surface and deep features.

The senior literacy teacher looked at all the writing samples and noticed discrepancies in teachers' interpretation of students' use of surface and deep features. As a result of this, teachers met to discuss examples of their students' writing. From these meetings a shared understanding of what they were looking for, and a common language to talk about writing features, emerged.

These discussions also helped to focus teachers' approach to teaching surface and deep features. Teachers used the annotated exemplars of students' work from the ARB resources, "Should Animals be Kept in Zoos?" (WL3655), and "The Giant Egg" (WL3249), as models for students to show them the features to look for when they edited their work. "The Giant Egg" and one of the associated student exemplars is shown below.

Students were also given a non-annotated version of a student's text (the teacher had typed up the text without the annotations) to practice editing. One teacher described how she uses examples of students' work from her class, her own models, and the models from "The Giant Egg" to assist students to develop editing skills. She discussed how her students enjoyed using other students' work.

During 2002, students completed the persuasive writing task, "Should Animals be Kept in Zoos?" (WL3655). At the end of the year the task "We Walked into the Bush." (WL3234) was used as a comparison to assess growth in writing skills and the impact of the school-wide focus on writing. In the junior school a similar exercise was conducted with persuasive writing exemplars from a trial as part of the National Exemplars Project.

All the staff we talked to were extremely positive about the focus on writing skills and discussed how rewarding it had been, both for students and for themselves. These teachers outlined how using the ARB levels-based scoring guides and the annotated examples of students' work had made marking across the school more consistent. They also considered that this in-depth focus on writing, and being able to view students' work from other schools, had raised their expectations of what students could do, and had increased students' motivation and interest in writing.

I think the ARBs added that extra dimension to it. Students are fascinated by other children of their own age and what they have to say.

As well as the two main school-wide uses of ARB resources that are led by school management, the middle and senior school teachers have a culture of sharing ARB resources and using ARB resources in their classroom programmes. Some of the other ways teachers use ARB resources are outlined below.

As part of the school's assessment programme, senior teachers select ARB tasks from the English, mathematics, and science banks to include in units to assess key areas. From the scoring guides teachers select the main features they are assessing against and produce a coversheet to attach to each completed task to show students' progress. This assessment is shown to students and their progress is discussed. Students can select which ARB tasks they would like included in their portfolios.
Senior teachers give ARB resources to other teachers to model the development of assessment tasks, especially practical tasks.
Students use the ARB scoring guides for self and peer assessment. First, the teacher leads a discussion about the key features of the scoring guide and the language used to ensure that students have a shared understanding of the criteria they are looking for. Students then assess their own or others' work, and discuss their decisions either with each other or with their teacher.
Teachers also use ARB tasks as teaching resources. Teachers use the colour printer to produce laminated ARB tasks. Some are "embargoed" for end-of-unit assessments.

At Upper Hutt School only the computers in the middle and senior school have access to the Internet. The principal has bookmarked the ARB site on all the Internet-connected school computers to facilitate access. Most teachers prefer to access the banks at home due to a lack of time at school or a lack of ready access to the Internet.

All teachers have received recent professional development in computer use and the various assessment tools available, but the use of the ARBs in individual teaching programmes was a matter of individual preference. The amount of use by staff of ARB resources varied from very heavy to none, and was mostly concentrated in the middle and senior school. Although teachers used ARB resources in all three curriculum areas, they made the most use of the English bank.

Teachers noted that they returned to use their favourite resources but were also constantly searching for new resources. They tended to access the banks when they were planning for a particular area or topic and so therefore used a keyword search to find resources directly related to this area, for example, using "metaphor" in English or "planets" in science.

The principal and teachers we talked to at Upper Hutt School identified a range of benefits of ARB use such as providing a tight match of assessment task with specific learning objectives, and ease of use. The principal and teachers saw the ARBs as a vehicle which provides important ideas for young teachers to strengthen their understanding of core curriculum areas, and assists teachers to improve their ICT skills and confidence.

One main benefit of ARB use for school staff was the way in which ARB resources are used to help support the school-wide assessment programme. This assists staff to establish baseline data, see trends, and compare their students nationally. Teachers commented on how the ARBs gave them access to resources they might not have had otherwise, a wider perspective on student achievement, and helped them focus on the needs of their students.

I like the perspective it gives on other students of a similar age so one can compare; it adds another dimension to my teaching.

The main benefits to me are the quality; the quantity is not overwhelming, and the scoring guides and difficulty estimates help remove doubts about where I am with my kids.

Once a teacher gets to grips with the ARBs it's a great asset to their teaching. Its expanding range is appealing as there is always something new.

I probably wouldn't have had a reading response [comprehension] sample [for students' portfolios] until the ARBs came along.

Upper Hutt School staff give assessment, and its relationship to teaching and learning, a lot of thought and attention. Use of the ARBs is just one part of the school's assessment strategy, but one that appears to make a clear contribution. School staff use the ARBs both in their school-wide assessment programme, and within individual teaching programmes, and were positive about the contribution the ARBs are making in their continual drive to improve these programmes. One important component of the ARB use at this school is the way in which results are fed back into the teaching programme to inform next step teaching. Another is providing information to show students, parents, and the Board of Trustees how students are progressing. Teachers considered that using the ARBs gave their assessments more credibility and gave them more confidence to interpret the achievements of their students, and plan their next teaching steps.