What are Formative assessment markbooks?
You can set up Formative Markbooks that enable you to input and track a student's individual curriculum descriptors in one location. The assessment platform will give you a quick and easy overview of a student’s attainment in a subject or subject component. The new platform works well with all tablets allowing teachers and senior leaders to enter data quickly and efficiently.
You can track your students using four stages:
- emerging
- developing
- secure
- exceeding
Each stage consists of 1.5 points with a maximum of 6 points for each descriptor. A colour for each stage has been assigned to help you quickly analyse the overall performance of your group.
If you have 10 descriptors then the maximum points a student can achieve is 60.
Formative Markbook Key
- Arrow - Revert any stage that has been input at that selected checkpoint, for example if you have entered Secure at checkpoint 5, click on that stage and it will revert to Developing, a further click will take you back to Secure (on the condition all stages have been entered at that checkpoint).
- Lock - Change the result from Exceeding back to Start if required.
- I - A pop up box will display showing you the entire text of the statement.
If a stage is highlighted in white text, this indicates that a score has been entered in the future.
The letter prior to the stage represents the score entered at the checkpoint selected, the stage to the right represents the future mark. E_ = Emerging, D_ = Developing and S_ = Secure.Creating Additional Statements
You can create new components and statements through ScholarPack. Once your subjects have been created you can use the assessment platform to show your students' attainment levels across these components.
Go to Admin > Config > Formative Assessment Statements.
Where and how to Enter Data
You will need to set up a subject class first in Admin > Classes (full guidance here). You can access the formative statements by clicking on My Subjects > [Select Class by Subject] > Formative Markbook.
You will need to select a subject component and the checkpoint you want to enter data for, by default the checkpoint will represent the period you are currently working in.
Once your descriptors and students have appeared, use the simple four-click procedure to change each statement to emerging, developing, secure or exceeding.
You also have the option to select/deselect all students and statements to apply your assessment to.
If you have data in your current checkpoint and attempt to add additional Steps retrospectively, the system will not allow it, this is a safety precaution. If you need to correct a Step, you will need to unlock the formative Markbook first and then adjust through the latest checkpoint.
How to Analyse your Data
At each checkpoint, you will see the percentage complete by statement (right), points obtained by student (bottom), percentage complete by student (bottom). The results will update automatically whenever you change a score.
The assessment platform will calculate the maximum points a student can achieve across all statements relating to that component, 6 points for each statement, 1.5 points for each stage. The score is calculated from all the statements displayed on the Markbook page, this gives you an overall score which converts into a percentage.
The 'Percentage Secure of Assessed' will show, for the statements where an assessment has been recorded, how a student is performing in relation to 'Secure'. If all the statements have been assessed as Secure, then the student will show a 100% score. If however the student has been assessed as Developing for all statements, then the score will be 66.66%. The score is a guide as to how the student is performing in relation to the statements where a mark exists and to 'Secure'
You can exclude statements from the calculations at the bottom of the page by simply clicking on the statement, the contrast of the statement will change (light grey). Once this has happened simply click the 'Re-calculate percentages' button to update your scores and percentages.