Optional reading: Strengthening teacher judgements

Teachers constantly make judgements of student learning. Each semester, student reports must include judgements against the curriculum achievement standards.     

Why standards matter

Standards matter because they:

  • describe the expected features or characteristics of quality at various levels of performance
  • assist assessment of the quality of student work at various levels
  • provide a common set of stated reference points for teacher use
  • inform local professionals of system-level expectations. 

When there is a shared understanding of standards, they help teachers make comparable judgements of student work. This then builds trust in the reliability of assessment.(Klenowski and Wyatt-Smith, 2014).

Teacher judgements and moderation

Teacher judgement of student work has three elements:

  • attending to the learner's production of the work
  • appraising the work against some background or reference framework such as standards
  • making an explicit response, such as assigning a grade to the learner's work.   (Klenowski and Wyatt-Smith, 2014)

Moderation is when teachers discuss and debate their judgements of student work. Teachers also share their understanding of the standards. Herein, it is an opportune time to connect teacher judgements to standards. To do this teachers and teacher/school leaders can:

  • aim for consensus on what the assessment and standards criteria mean
  • aim for consensus on the grade or standard assigned to the student
  • allow disagreement to occur when teachers make their judgements and interpretations public. This is how new knowledge, understanding or interpretations of the standards occur.

Teachers judgements strengthen when they:

  • increase their understanding of standards and criteria
  • build their evidence and data analysis capacity.

A Professional Learning Community (PLC) or Professional Learning Team (PLT) can help teachers use this knowledge to map out learning progressions. These help locate what students know, understand and can do at different times. Progressions also help determine learning progress, which schools communicate to parents/carers via reports.

Klenowski and Wyatt-Smith found that when teachers use these processes, teachers had increased:

  • confidence in their assessments
  • capacity to critique the assessment tools they used
  • ability to discern the validity and reliability of assessments.

This allowed teachers to pinpoint areas of student learning progress and areas for improvement. It also helped them estimate a student's learning trajectory. These valuable insights were then communicated and discussed with parents and students.

For more guidance, refer to these NZ Ministry of Education Assessment websites:

Leadership, professional learning and capacity building implications

PLCs and PLTs provide an effective adult learning architecture. They help teachers come together to analyse and interpret a range of student data and evidence.

To analyse and interpret data and evidence, teachers should work together to:

  •  'read' and understand the data and evidence
  •  make sense of it in light of the intended learning and associated learning continua
  • pinpoint what students know, understand and can do
  • make inferences from the learning evidence
  • determine further investigations needed to make a confident judgement. 

School and teacher leaders can help classroom teachers:

  • think of assessment not as measurement of the acquisition of knowledge but as active engagement in assessment processes
  • use complex assessment tasks. In these, students show their analytical, problem solving or creative skills
  • build a repertoire of assessment skills and understandings
  • ensure teachers engage in rich moderation discussions about student work and standards
  •  use a futures-orientated approach to assessment. This focuses on quality, creativity, originality of learning and use of knowledge
  • provide opportunities for teachers to develop their criteria and standards knowledge. This supports teachers to clarify the qualities valued in the performances, demonstrations or processes of learning. 
                                                                                                 (Klenowski and Wyatt-Smith, 2014)