Ontario’s practice of the use of data in driving school improvement  (Janet)

Observations in Hong Kong

More schools start to get used to using external assessment data, e.g. TSA data to inform better learning and teaching.  Yet, not many find it manageable to go any further in-depth and devise detailed plans.

Inquiry points derived

s   What kind of data are released for schools’ use?

s   How schools make use of the data?

s   Can the data be used to help schools better cater for learner diversity?

Learning points

System level

s   Not only is achievement data, i.e. data that reflect student academic achievement and attainment, used, contextual data and attitude data are also used to help schools better understand their students’ needs and drive improvements.

Data released for schools’ use

Source : Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO)

s   A broader view of what assessment is and can inform schools on students’ learning is adopted.

An overview of how large-scale and classroom assessments are jointly used

to allow schools to gain more complete picture of student learning

Source : Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO)

s   The School Support and Outreach Team of EQAO reaches out to schools through workshops to promote the use of data for school improvement, e.g.

n   To enhance principals, vice-principals, teachers and parents’ understanding of how to use EQAO data as a basis for supporting student achievement

n   To engage in discussions with school administrators basing on their personal knowledge of the effectiveness of data to inform practice

n   To conduct presentations for principals, school teams and parents at the regional and local level on the effective use of data

s   With the use of the platform shown below, Principals are encouraged to drive continuous improvement in learning and teaching at schools with contextual data, attitude / behavioural data and achievement data taken into consideration.  The platform also allows schools to customize the use of the data by creating different grouping which will then enable them to better identify the needs of specific group of students.  This eventually allows schools to better cater for learners’ diverse needs.

A platform that encourages customized use of data by Principals
to drive improvement in learning and teaching and school improvement

School practices

s   At school level, the term “assessment” is also interpreted as something beyond academic assessment.  Monthly meetings are held among school support team members (speech language pathologists, parents, social workers, psychologists and specialists) to discuss various student cases.

s   According to the teachers, when they hold meetings to discuss progress of student learning, instead of discussing and reporting the level of attainment of their students, they started by looking at students’ work to see what their students are capable of doing. 

s   Based on the initial assessment of their students, teachers then set different targets for different students.  The example below illustrates a teacher’s initial assessment of students’ performance.  The visual presentation of students’ initial attainment helps the teacher gain a better idea of where he/she is trying to get their students to in the next step.

Visual presentation of initial assessment of students’ performance

Source : Clinton Street Public School

s   The preparation of Class Profile which allows teachers to identify patterns among students in terms of:

n   Their learning styles and preferences

n   Their current place in the learning, or “readiness to learn”, with respect to the expectations of the particular subject and grade or course, as well as their learning strengths and areas in need of improvement

n   Their interests and talents

n   Their socio affective characteristics

n   The challenges involved in meeting their learning needs, and the supports that are required to address those needs

       demonstrates how data of different kinds are collected and used to improve learning and   
       teaching at schools.

Sample class profile

Source :  Learning for All 2011