Collaborative Assessment Teams: Influence on Teachers’ Perceptions TowardDevelopment and Usage of Common Formative Assessments in the Classroom.

Abstract

To improve student achievement on End-of-Course summative assessments,teachers must be able to provide supplemental instruction during the learning processwhen students fail to meet proficiency targets. Common formative assessments that arecreated collaboratively, allow teachers to engage in shared data analysis and applycorrective instruction (Vagle, 2015). As part of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA),High School XYZ implemented common formative assessments developed withinCollaborative Assessment Teams (CAT) as a building-wide initiative to close the studentachievement gap. The current phenomenological, qualitative study sought to explore theperceptions of secondary science teachers who had participated in CollaborativeAssessment Teams (CAT) regarding the development and usage of common formativeassessments in their classrooms. The purposive sample included eight secondary scienceteachers working in Biology and Physical Science CATs, in an urban Georgia schooldistrict. Multiple forms of data were collected including CAT meeting observations,individual interviews, and review of archival documents. Data analysis supported thatteachers recognized efficiency when using common formative assessments developed inCAT to identify specific common formative assessments for efficiency, CAT encouragedshared-analysis of student data results and provided students with immediate feedbackthat encouraged student involvement in the assessment process. However, it was alsofound that teachers continued to struggle with reverting back to traditional practices, suchas, developing a proficiency benchmark for determining student proficiency, andconnecting common formative assessment practices developed within CATs as a directlink to closing the student achievement gap school-wide.