Assessment and Reporting Taskforce
The Assessment and Reporting (A&R) Taskforce is about getting experienced people in the same room to focus on creating solutions for some of the most pressing issues that schools in this region are facing.
Currently, they are working to develop improved tools and systems so that teachers, school administrators, government tutors and district education officials in the Lango Sub-region can effectively assess pupil performance, report progress to parents in a meaningful way and use the results to improve instruction and pupil performance.
A&R Taskforce At a Glance:
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The A&R Taskforce consists of eighteen members divided into three groups. Each group is responsible for creating materials for a specific grade level (P1, P2, and P3, respectively).
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Members of the A&R Taskforce include teachers, head teachers, and coordinating centre tutors. Deputy principals and district education officials are also periodically invited to meetings.
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Each member was invited to participate because of their firsthand knowledge of the problems their fellow education workers are experiencing, as well as their demonstrated passion for finding solutions to those problems.
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The A&R Taskforce has already met several times, and will meet about once a month for a total of nine meetings in 2019.
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Each meeting has a specific focal topic. As of now, the Taskforce is working on creating an improved Continuous Assessment Monitoring form to make it easier for teachers to evaluate the progress of their their pupils.
Specific Desired Outcomes:
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Standardized Continuous Assessment Monitoring Form for all Learning Areas in P1-P3 by Term
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Standardized End-of-Term Summative Assessments for Literacy and Numeracy in P1-P3 by Term
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Standardized Parent Report Card for P1-P3 by Term
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Standardized Termly Reporting of Key Competences in Pupils’ Literacy and Numeracy Performance to District Education Officials
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Implementation Guide for the Regional Assessment and Reporting Policy for P1-P3 Teachers to be used for training district officials, head teachers and teachers in 2020
Why did we create the A&R Taskforce?
A major issue Mango Tree Literacy Lab is grappling with as we attempt to implement our Teacher Mentor Program is the current incoherent assessment and reporting of pupil progress for literacy. As part of our Teacher Mentor Program we expect teachers to follow Ministry of Education policy on assessment which has been clear and consistent over many years, but implementation at the district level remains problematic.
In our work with teachers to improve their ability to do continuous daily assessment using the national literacy model we’ve also gotten feedback that A.) Teachers would prefer a Continuous Assessment Monitoring (CAM) Form that is tailored to the actual literacy competences taught for that specific term – not the generic ministry CAM Form that is currently available; and B.) Teachers need a CAM Form for all the other non-literacy lessons they teach every day, like mathematics and religious education.
Also notable are the end-of-term summative assessments. The national literacy model has clear guidelines teachers are expected to follow, but many districts also have their own end-of-term assessment tests they expect teachers to implement. These commercial assessment tests tend to be poorly set and often do not reflect actual instruction during the term.
In addition, each school seems to have its own version of a parent report card. These report cards do not reflect the continuous and summative assessments of pupil competences that teachers have done during the term. They also don’t reflect the Ministry of Education and Sports move to a competency-based assessment model. And because they are written in English, parents find them challenging to interpret. For several years now, Mango Tree Literacy Lab has been piloting simplified parent-friendly report cards in Leblango that reflect the MoES assessment policies and would like to work with regional education stakeholders to create a report card that better prepares parents to support their children’s progress.
What is the goal of the A&R Taskforce?
The purpose of this joint activity with Loro Primary Teachers College, a government entity with jurisdiction in all eight districts in the Lango Sub-region, is to work with regional education leadership to create a coherent, regional plan for assessing pupils’ academic progress on a termly basis and reporting that progress in a clear and understandable way to parents and district officials. In 2019 we will develop the tools and systems needed to implement a more coherent, regional assessment model while we look for funding to pilot this model in 2020 and beyond.