In their Outstanding Teaching, Learning, and Assessment (OTLA 3) project in 2017/18 Kendal College and HMP Haverigg built on a previous Education and Training Foundation (ETF) project piloting the 'Effective Practice Guidelines' (EPGs) for assessment and tracking.  They tested EPG-recommended approaches, such as ‘limiting assessment to what is necessary’ and ‘assessing for self-belief and motivation’. They focused on GCSE maths progress (or lack of it) at a microscopic level to enable learners to recognise, record and ‘own’ their progress. Using ‘Expectancy Value’ measures through which learners expressed belief in their ability to make progress and the value they attached to it, the project team compared these values with actual progress. HMP Haverigg worked with the college to introduce this practice in a secure estate setting. The combination of impact indicators — trend results, observations, questionnaires, and teachers’ and learners’ tracking documentation — provided credible evidence of wider institutional, cultural change which removed barriers for learners, stimulated confident achievement, and supported practitioners’ long-term professional development. Kendal College achieved significantly improved GCSE maths results in 2017 seeing its high-grade rate increase from 21% to 31%, and it maintained this high-grade rate for maths in 2018. When the college introduced assessment for learning strategies in GCSE English its 2018 high-grade rate improved from 20% to 41%. 

Technical accessibility note: The ETF has edited and reformatted the case studies for accessibility with screen readers. The final reports included in the resource file below are as they were supplied to the ETF by the projects and may not be fully accessible.