LEARNING TO LEARN
street from school to student and parents, telling them
how it is, end of story.
The Education Endowment Fund’s (EEF) marking
review (2016) addressed the effectiveness of grades
and comments, and found no evidence to support the
use of grades without comments. Where no information
is provided to the student as to how to improve this,
progress can even be hindered. The specificity of
feedback comments is key to their effectiveness in
improving performance. The danger with reports is
that comments are often far too general and goals
long-term, making them potentially ineffective as a
form of feedback.
Selwyn et al (2017) analysed ‘open data’ policies in
schools. This concept considers alternatives to the
fragmented, limited sharing of data that occurs with
most current reporting policies. Open data policies could
be alike a WikiLeaks approach in which everyone sees
everything – or they could involve presenting overviews
of data most relevant to teaching and learning. Selwyn
et al suggested that the benefits of such open data
policies are greater clarity for students, and a better
context for assessing overall student progress. The
real-time nature of open data policies also allow all
stakeholders to be better informed and able to flag
real-time academic or pastoral issues rather than at
only pre-determined data drops.
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The effectiveness of school reporting systems is
a current pertinent topic at both national and
international level. While more research is needed, there
are several key ideas gaining significant momentum.
Best practice suggests reporting should:
1. Have a clear purpose – support pupil learning
outcomes and align with school values and ethos
2. Be efficient – avoid duplication of collection,
interpretation and presentation of data
3. Align with subject curricula and assessment – be
more flexible and subject specific
4. Involve students – encourage development of
meta-cognitive strategies including self-
assessments, self-questioning, and self-predictions
5. Build student confidence and self-efficacy
6. Include effective goals – targets which are specific,
short-term, measurable, and relevant
7. Be more open – highlighting real-time academic,
co-curricular and pastoral data
8. Make effective use of technology – employ
user friendly software/apps for monitoring and
improving student progress.