Assessment and learning: an in-depth analysis of change in one school’s assessment culture

ABSTRACT

The introduction of new assessment policy can reverberate throughout all levels of schooling. This paper presents an in-depth investigation into one school’s response in the Junior years of secondary education to the introduction of a new Senior years’ assessment system. The investigation focuses on the educational context of a high-performing school where school leaders decided to prioritise learning rather than summative assessment in the Junior school. The findings reveal the practices required to make critical changes to the assessment culture and related assessment systems for the school, within a context of national assessment accountabilities and high community expectations. These practices include the collaboration of school leaders with teachers, students and parents to drive change while maintaining high performance.

KEYWORDS:

• Assessment
• school culture
• assessment culture
• high-performing schools
• assessment and learning

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to acknowledge Dr Ann Farley for contributing to the thinking about this project. We also acknowledge the work of Stacey Winch, Dr Elizabeth Heck and Alinta Brown for their contribution to literature searches and analysis. We sincerely thank the teachers, school leaders, parents and students for their valuable contributions to this ongoing work of culture change in school assessment practices.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The authors wish to acknowledge funding provided by the Australian Catholic University and by the school which is the focus of the study reported here.

Notes on contributors

Lenore Adie

Lenore Adie is Associate Professor in Teacher Education and Assessment and Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Learning Sciences and Teacher Education, Australia Catholic University (ACU). Her research focuses on assessment processes as these contribute to supporting teachers’ pedagogical practices and student learning across all phases of education. She has extensive professional experience working in schools as a teacher and in leadership positions, and in teacher education for over 30 years. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3874-397X Twitter: @LenoreAdie

Bruce Addison

Bruce Addison is Deputy Principal (Academic) at Brisbane Girls Grammar School, Australia, where he teaches Economics and Philosophy of Learning. He also taught post-graduate courses in curriculum and leadership at the University of Queensland. His doctorate and continuing research interests are focussed in the fields of leadership and the development of professional practice, particularly in the context of practice deepening and change. He has a particular interest in academic care and the nurturing of visible thinking in secondary schools as well as in the development of professional practice for individual teachers and on a school-wide basis.

Bob Lingard

Bob Lingard is a Professorial Fellow in the Institute for Learning Sciences & Teacher Education at Australian Catholic University, Brisbane. He is a sociologist of education who has published widely on policy sociology, the OECD’s education work, datafication, school reform, and social justice in education. He is author/editor of 25 books, the most recent of which is Globalizing Educational Accountabilities (Routledge, 2016) and Politics, Policies and Pedagogies in Education (Routledge, 2014). He is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia and in the UK and Co-Editor of a Routledge Book Series, Key Ideas and Education. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4101-9985 Twitter: @boblingard86