Through an extended commentary on the empirical articles in this special issue 'Signature Assessment and Feedback Practices in the Disciplines' we elaborate the concepts of signature assessment and signature feedback practices by developing a new taxonomy of their elements. We propose that signature assessments focus on conceptual,…

This paper explores how data-driven practices and logics have come to reshape the possibilities by which the teaching profession, and teaching professionals, can be known and valued. Informed by the literature and theorising around educational performativity, the constitutive power of numbers, and affective responses to data, it shows how…

This chapter illustrates two campus processes that utilized student-level data management systems, such as student record systems, assessment platforms, and comprehensive student records, to assess student outcomes relevant to campus missions, goals, and learning outcomes.

The past few decades have witnessed a global enforcement of "governance by data" in education policy, including a significant increase of assessments and quantified evaluation. Within this context, this article focuses particularly on the intensifying evolvement of new (digital) information technologies and "mediated"…

The costs of persistent misalignment between the supply and demand for skills are substantial, ranging from lost wages for workers to lower productivity for firms and countries. Addressing skills imbalances has become a pressing priority as OECD governments reflect on the implications of technological progress, digitalisation, demographic change…

Despite the increased worldwide acknowledgment of the importance of teachers' use of formative and/or summative assessment data to improve teaching and learning, empirical research on its impacts on student learning is sparse. Even more so is the lack of studies on the best ways for school leaders to develop teachers' capacity. Teachers generally…

The recommendations in this brief create a framework for using data effectively to make instructional decisions. The availability of student-level data for educators has pushed forward the movement to strengthen the role of data to guide instruction and improve student learning. While improvements in technology and assessments, as well as recent…

Background: Data use has been promoted as a panacea for instructional improvement. However, the field lacks a detailed understanding of how teachers actually use assessment data to inform instruction and the factors that shape this process. Purpose: This article provides a review of literature on teachers' use of assessment data to inform…

Formative assessment, assessment for learning, involves checking in with students during the learning process to see if they understand concept or standard, before holding them accountable for mastery and moving on to the next concept or standard. This process can be used in the classroom during the lesson or across a subject area as teachers of…

This study examined the influence of a professional development project about an internet-based mathematics formative assessment tool and related pedagogies on primary teachers' instruction and student achievement. Teachers participated in 72 h of professional development during the year. Descriptive statistics and multivariate analyses of…

This research focuses on the everyday challenge in academic learning of assessment, and argues that academic buoyancy is a key factor in academic success. To scaffold students' learning and effectively support academic buoyancy, there is arguably a need for a better understanding of: (i) what students find most and least useful in their assessment…

In this book, best-selling author Susan M. Brookhart helps teachers and administrators understand the critical elements and nuances of assessment data and how that information can best be used to inform improvement efforts in the school or district. Readers will learn: (1) What different kinds of data can--and cannot--tell us about student…

Grading is one of teachers' greatest challenges and most important professional responsibilities. For more than a century, grades remained the primary indicator of how well students performed in school and stayed the basis for making important decisions about students (Guskey, 2015). Traditional grading practices are subjective at best and do not…

Despite assessment and feedback being important elements of the student experience, it is not clear how students connect these two elements together to improve their learning. What are students doing with the assignment feedback that they receive from tutors, and how do they make use of this feedback in their future assessments? A research study…

Feedback is known to have a large influence on student learning gains, and the emergence of online tools has greatly enhanced the opportunity for delivering timely, expressive, digital feedback and for investigating its learning impacts. However, to date there have been no large quantitative investigations of the feedback provided by large teams…