Version: 1.0 - 2009Please always check for the latest version as the product is regularly updated

This Teacher’s Handbook is designed to help you effectively use achieve and Go Science! Online Assessment.

achieve and Go Science! Online Assessment

Note: achieve is the engine which also powers the Go Science! Online Assessment. Throughout this handbook, we use the term ‘achieve’ to refer to both achieve and Go Science! Online Assessment.

Heinemann is an imprint of Pearson Education Limited, a company incorporated in England and Wales, having its registered offi ce at

Edinburgh Gate, Harlow, Essex, CM20 2JE. Registered company number: 872828

www.heinemann.co.uk

Heinemann is a registered trademark of Pearson Education Limited

Text © Pearson Education Limited 2009

First published 2009

12 11 10 09 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

British Library Cataloguing in Publication DataA catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 978 0435 050917

Copyright noticeAll rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in

any form or by any means (including photocopying or storing it in any medium by electronic means and whether or not transiently or incidentally

to some other use of this publication) without the written permission of the copyright owner, except in accordance with the provisions of the

Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 or under the terms of a licence issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6 –10 Kirby

Street, London EC1N 8TS (www.cla.co.uk). Applications for the copyright owner’s written permission should be addressed to the publisher.

Edited by Katherine CarrDesigned by Claire Lythgoe

Printed and bound in the UK by Ashford Colour Press.

Every effort has been made to contact copyright holders of material reproduced in this book. Any omissions will be rectifi ed in subsequent

printings if notice is given to the publishers.

Assessment for Learning (AfL) is all about using the outcomes of an assessment to inform the next steps of learning. By giving students feedback on where they achieved and what their next steps of learning should be, an AfL-designed assessment will motivate students and make them want to take responsibility for their own learning.

The nationally accepted defi nition of Assessment for Learning is:

‘Assessment for Learning is the process of seeking and interpreting evidence for use by learners and their teachers to decide where they are in their learning, where they need to go and how best to get there.’Assessment Reform Group

This statement inspired the creation of achieve and defi nes what achieve aims to do.

achieve is an online assessment system. It assesses students’ abilities in science and maths during Key Stage 3 and provides both a diagnostic assessment system to identify barriers to learning and help students progress, and a summative set of tests to accurately monitor performance over time.

You can easily set assessments or tests for individual students, whole classes or year groups. Students take an assessment and get instant results. Individual or class results are provided in tabular or graphical form releasing your time and allowing you to focus on interpreting the results and plan your teaching.

achieve is ideal in helping you plan your teaching and supports several aspects of Assessment for Learning. As a teacher you need to know more about what your students understand before you can plan your teaching. This is particularly important in Year 7 when students come from a number of different primary schools. The last thing you want to do is to go over work they did in Year 6 that they already understand.

Now that there won’t be any Key Stage 2 tests in science from 2010, achieve will allow you to assess what your new Year 7 students understand.

You can fi nd the 10 principles of Assessment for Learning on QCA’s website under Assessment for Learning.

Taking just fi ve of these principles achieve :

is part of effective planning – by setting an assignment in achieve before teaching a topic, you can fi nd out what students know and understand already and can adjust your teaching plans accordingly

helps learners know how to improve – achieve provides individual feedback to learners on what they can do and what they need to do. Future versions of achieve will give learners materials to help them address their ‘I need to...’ statements

promotes understanding of goals and criteria – individual feedback helps students take responsibility for their own learning

develops the capacity for self-assessment – students can work on their own, reviewing the outcome of the assessments and identifying their strengths and weaknesses

fosters motivation – you can encourage students to take responsibility for their own learning by reviewing their ‘plans’.

achieve ’s summative tests present all students with the same questions within a level range (e.g. 3 – 4) and provide an indicative level of performance. You can use the results of a test to compare a student’s performance with that of other students taking the same test or against expected progress.

Feedback is delivered as an overall indicative level.

The content of the course is sampled.

You can get a snapshot of student performance.

achieve ’s diagnostic assessments give feedback on performance and are unique in removing the barriers to learning by identifying where an individual student is having diffi culty and what they need to do next to improve. The assessments are intended to give you and your students a better understanding of what they know and understand. They are not designed to give an overall level or to compare one student’s performance with another’s.

The focus is on providing an individual, personalised assessment for each student, enabling them to fi nd out how to improve.

Every objective in the course of study is covered.

The objectives being assessed are broken down into a number of sub-objectives that progress sequentially.

An adaptive system (described on the next page) delivers appropriate questions to each student and reports the highest level a student attains in each sub-objective.

Results accurately pinpoint which objectives are not understood, so you can plan lessons accordingly (see the report on page 29).

The diagnostic assessments provide an individual, personalised assessment for each student. achieve uses an adaptive system to diagnose individual student’s strengths and weaknesses.As the student works through the assessment, the system adapts and chooses questions that are appropriate for that student. High-achieving students will move swiftly through the easier questions to ones at a higher level. Once it is clear that a student has reached their highest level in each objective, they will not be presented with any more questions.

Assessments are based on a series of KS3 objectives. Each objective is broken down into smaller sub-objectives, the fi rst being the easiest and those following becoming progressively harder. These sub-objectives form the building blocks upon which knowledge of the topic is developed.

Each sub-objective has a sub-level and at least three different questions associated with it, as shown in the table above. A question is randomly selected by the system from the relevant questions available for each sub-objective. If the student gets the question right then they are given a harder question. If they get it wrong, they are given a second attempt. If they get this second question right, they get a harder one but if they get it wrong there are no more questions for the objective.

The repetition is helpful in reinforcing knowledge in a targeted area and removes any part luck might play in answering the questions. In addition, as there is more than one question for each objective, you can be confi dent that the results of each diagnostic assessment clearly show where the student has a solid understanding of a topic and where there are diffi culties.

Note that achieve ’s diagnostic assessments don’t give an overall level. This is because:

the sequence of questions is not uniform and sometimes the assessment stops at a certain sub-level (based on curriculum requirements) – even if a student is capable of higher. For example, in a level 5-6 assessment, objective X might start at 5b and go up to 6a while objective Y might start at 5c and go up to 6c

the diagnostic assessments provide a personalised assessment for each student. No student will have exactly the same test or the same number of questions.

Once the assessment is submitted to you, you can look at the reports – see section 10. Students can also get immediate feedback – see section 9. The diagnostic assessments can be taken again at a later date to fi nd out if the understanding of the objectives has improved after further teaching of that topic.

Know what is beyond the solar system

Understand that stars that appear the brightest are closest to Earth

Have some understanding of the distances between objects in our solar system

Understand that a light year is a measurement of distance not time

6c

6b

6a

6c

6b

6a

Susan Wong answers all questions successfully so we know that she understands the topic well. She moves swiftly through the questions and achieves a 6a for the objective.

6c

6b

6b

Bethany Russell answers the sub-level 6c question successfully but answers the 6b question incorrectly. She is given another chance and is asked another question at sub-level 6b but she gets it wrong again. The system concludes that she has trouble with the sub-objective ‘Have some understanding of the distances between objects in our solar system’. She is not asked a question at level 6a and achieves a 6c for the objective.

6c

6c

Benjamin Allen answers the sub-level 6c question wrongly. He is given another chance and is asked another question at level 6c but he gets it wrong again. The system concludes that he has trouble with this objective altogether. He gets a ‘working towards 6’ mark (WT6) for the objective.

6c Not attempted

Chelsea Taylor doesn’t attempt the objective at all. She gets a N/A (not attempted) in her reports.

This is how achieve ’s adaptive system works with one objective with four different students. Because the system randomly picks questions, the students do not necessarily get the same questions as each other.

achieve is a teaching and learning product that takes each part of the Key Stage 3 programme of study and breaks it down into sequences of sub-objectives. These sequences show how a topic develops and progresses in terms of levels of diffi culty.

The diagnostic assessments start assessing from the easiest level to the point at which a student can progress no further. The highest level of achievement is reported as is the next step so that students know what they can do and what they need to do next.

achieve is designed to support progression across KS3.

In achieve:

the majority of KS3 objectives in science are covered

all the objectives are broken down into a sequence of sub-objectives

each sub-objective contains at least three questions

students have personalised assessments so no two diagnostic assessments are the same

you will fi nd suffi cient questions to assess your students accurately.

Just to give you an indication, our science question bank comprises more than 1100 questions for each year group. These questions are updated and added to regularly. Some sample questions are shown below.

Students like the variety and style of the questions we provide. There are many interactive and free response questions; the questions are not all multiple choice.

achieve is an assessment product developed by teachers for teachers. Questions were written by teams under the direction of Cambridge Assessment – an internationally recognised centre for assessment.

Questions are regularly checked for accuracy and accessibility by teachers before being developed by Pearson – the leading publisher for schools. The levels and sub-levels assigned in the diagnostic assessments are designed to show progression in the subject. Questions are written to match levels and sub-levels.

The levels set in the summative tests are based on the demands expected by the level thresholds in QCA’s previous end of Key Stage 3 tests. The summative tests and associated level thresholds have been pre-tested in schools. The large majority of teachers reported that they were happy with the standards in the tests and have not suggested any threshold amendments. Some did point out that students with lower ICT skills were hampered in their ability to answer some onscreen questions, but the majority said their students found the interactive assessments particularly motivating compared to having to write the answers on paper. You will want to take these issues of skill and motivation into account when you look at the levels your students achieve in their assessments and tests.

End of Key Stage 3 testsAlthough there are now no national assessments (SATs) at the end of Key Stage 3, teachers must still report a teacher assessment level. Some schools may continue to use paper tests to inform their teacher assessment, but achieve offers a simple, effi cient and motivating way to assign levels.

We provide two versions of tests at these levels:

3 – 5 4 – 6 5 – 7 6 – 8

New science Frameworkachieve highlights the How Science Works (HSW) objectives and sub-objectives so that you and your students can monitor how well they are performing in HSW. HSW is assessed through the curriculum content of ATs 2, 3 and 4, and students need to use AT1 and HSW skills to answer the questions for these targets. Our diagnostic reports cover HSW separately, highlighting areas of HSW in which a student is not so confi dent.

Assessing Pupils’ Progress (APP) is a non-statutory structured approach to pupil assessment covering levels 3 to 8. It emphasises How Science Works. You carry out assessment activities with a variety of outcomes and use an assessment grid to assign levels to your students. This process highlights areas where students are having diffi culty. You can then use achieve to ‘unpack’ the concepts covered in the activities and fi nd out where the barrier to learning is. In this way, achieve provides additional information to complement APP.

achieve is ideal in helping you plan your teaching to support AfL’s objectives of using the outcomes of an assessment to inform the next steps of learning and motivating students to take responsibility for their own learning. The following advice will help you get the most from achieve.

Assign an assessment prior to teaching the topic.

Read and interpret the reports (particularly the overview report shown on page 29) to fi nd out what your students already know and are already confi dent with and see where there are misconceptions.

If there are objectives that are understood by everyone, decide if you need to go over them again or if it would be better to focus on those that still need addressing.

If there are objectives that are misunderstood by everyone, spend your valuable teaching time covering these areas rather than wasting time on topics that are already understood.

Once you’ve taught the topic, reassign the assessment, which will let your students see where they have improved and what they need to focus on next.

When you revise a topic, use achieve ’s individual records of attainment in the objectives to help you decide who needs to be reassigned the assessment – the whole group or only the few who are struggling with some areas.

Levels coveredExpected level for

‘average’ pupil

Year 7 3 – 6 4a

Year 8 3 – 7 5b

Year 9 4 – 8 6c

The units in the GoScience! programme match the content of achieve.

achieve is a generic name for this product. It can easily work as a stand-alone product. However, the content has been mapped to work with Go Science!, our Key Stage 3 science programme.

The online assessments match the units of the Go Science! textbook.

Thank you for subscribing to this product.

Your subscription allows us to:

keep the product up to date with the latest curriculum changes

add to our large bank of innovative questions

adapt the product according to the feedback we receive

support you with any queries you may have regarding the usability or content of the product.

Please note that achieve has many products built in the same product platform. These include:

achieve (stand-alone) Science Y7, Y8 and Y9

achieve (stand-alone) Maths Y7, Y8 and Y9

Go Science! Online Assessment Y7, Y8 and Y9 using achieve

Level Up Maths Online Assessment 1, 2 and 3 using achieve.

The subscriber will receive an email from the Online Support Team confi rming they have subscribed to the product, and asking them to activate the subscription.

A clickable link in the activation email enables them to read the Online Licence Agreement. By agreeing to this licence they activate the product.

They receive an email from the Online Support Team which confi rms that they have activated the product. As the main administrator, they are given a username and password.

They can log into the product using the username and password allocated to them.

Please note that the product needs to be set up before you are able to use it. This is an activity that generally needs to be done annually at the beginning of a new academic year. We are more than happy to assist with the loading and updating of your data whenever necessary.

Please call 0845 223 8824, or email online.enquiries@pearson.comfor help with fi rst time or annual use.

The product keeps track of all the achieve subscriptions your school currently has on the homepage of the class management system. You can see who has subscribed and the current expiry date.

You will be reminded by email two months before your subscription expires.

If you haven’t taken any action, another email will be sent on the day your subscription expires.

Please organise your renewal in plenty of time to avoid any possible loss of access.

You can still log in to the administration part of the website. You will be able to see your reports, but will be unable to assign or take new tests.

If for any reason you decide not to renew we will delete your data a year after your subscription has expired.

Please tell us so that we can update our records, and ensure that you continue to receive information about achieve.

You need to set up your classes and students before you can use achieve. For a full understanding on how to add data, please refer to the ‘Getting Started’ manual for administrators. You can download the manual from:

http://achieve.heinemann.co.uk/help/pdf/GettingStartedAdmin.pdf

In addition to the user-type ‘Student’ you can specify four types of non-student user in achieve. Each user-type matches a particular role and is assigned an appropriate set of permissions. In practice, one teacher will often actually hold the fi rst three roles.

Administrator/subscriber – the person that activates a subscription and is the main point of contact, usually the head of department. We send emails to this person when the subscription needs renewing. This person can never be deleted from the system or change their password. This person can add or delete administrators, teachers or students and set up classes and year groups.

Please let us know if a subscriber’s email address changes in the course of the year.

Teacher/administrator – the person who can add or delete other administrators, teachers or students and set up classes and year groups.

An administrator can access the class management and the science and maths areas. However, an administrator doesn’t necessarily have classes assigned to them. If this is the case, they aren’t able to assign assessments.

Teacher/supervisor – able to view all assessments or reports. If you are a head of department or a KS3 coordinator, we recommend that you become a supervisor.

This will allow you to:

other teachers.

Teacher – can only view assessments or reports for their classes.

You can only:

Students – can only access their sections and take assessments that you assign to them.

An administrator can only be set up by somebody with administrator status. To add administrator privileges to a teacher, an existing administrator must go to the class management section. There are two ways the setup can be done.

Select Manage School/Users on the left-hand menu and then choose Amend existing user details. Choose Teacher from the drop-down menu, type the teacher’s name and click Search. Then click Edit and select the Yes button in the Administrator Rights box. Then click Save.

Alternatively, select Setting Up on the left-hand menu and choose Set-up Wizard. Choose Add teachers, add the teacher’s name on the Add teachers screen and tick the Admin box.

An administrator can give you ‘supervisor’ permissions by linking you to a year group. This can be done in two ways.

They can select Manage School/Users on the left-hand menu and then Add new user or Amend existing user details, as appropriate. They then choose Teacher from the drop-down menu and follow the onscreen instructions. When they have fi lled in all the details, they must click the Next button at the bottom of the screen to end up at this screenshot. They then tick the year group(s) for which you will become a supervisor.

Alternatively the administrator can select Setting Up on the left-hand menu and choose Set-up Wizard. They select ‘Link teachers to classes’ and then click Next. On the ‘Link teachers to year groups’ screen, they can then add you to the appropriate year group.

If you log in as a teacher, there are three areas you can currently access:

If you are set up as an administrator, you can set up classes and students.

If you are set up as a maths teacher and if your maths subscription is active, you can:

assign assessments and tests

view reports.

If you are set up as a science teacher and if your science subscription is active, you can:

assign assessments and tests

view reports.

Main Menu allows you to go back to the screen where you can access the class management section, the maths section or the science section.

Manage School/Year Groups is where you can add or delete a year group or amend its name.

Setting Up allows you to bulk-add students. There is a Set-up Wizard that helps you to set up. This is also the place you will fi nd the CSV import tool.

Manage School/Classes is where you can add or delete a class or amend its name. Please note that if you delete a science class, you also delete all the students that are members of that class, along with their reports – and their names and reports in the maths classes if they are also set-up for these.

Manage School/Users is where you can add, delete or amend the details of single users (teachers or students).

Home is the main area of the class management section. You can see the number of maths and science classes, the number of teachers or students and the number of assessments in progress. You can also view when your subscriptions are going to expire. If your school subscribes to both maths and science products, note that the students will share one database so you could import the names once if you know the maths and science classes they belong to.

The main functions of the class management section are to set up classes, students and teachers or amend data when there is a change. This section is normally used by the teacher/administrator of the site.

The teacher section allows you to assign assessments or view reports. Below is the left-hand menu you see when you select Science homepage after you have logged in.

Main Menu allows you to go back to the screen where you can access the class management section, the maths section or the science section.

Summative/Assign allows you to assign summative tests to a year group, class or individual students.

Diagnostic/Assign allows you to assign diagnostic assessments to a year group, class or individual students.

My Details shows your username. A default username and password are automatically issued as soon as your administrator adds a teacher on the system. You have to use these details the fi rst time you use the product. However, this section allows you to change your username or password to easier ones.

Home is where all new tests and assessments in progress appear. By clicking the Edit button, you can choose to Rename,Reassign, Delete or End Test.

My Classes lets you fi nd a student’s password and log-in details at any time.

Diagnostic/Reports allows you to view a list of diagnostic reports for your classes. It provides links to different ways of viewing the data and enables you to export it to a CSV fi le.

Diagnostic/Students allows you to view diagnostic reports for individual students.

Summative/Reports allows you to view a list of summative reports for your classes. It provides links to different ways of viewing the data and enables you to export it to a CSV fi le.

Summative/Students allows you to view summative reports for individual students.

This is the screen your students will see. We encourage you to log in as a student so that you are familiar with the screen.

Assessments/My Results allows students to view their diagnostic reports and learning plans and review their answers.

My Details shows the student’s username. A default username and password are automatically issued as soon as your administrator adds students on the system. Students have to use these details the fi rst time they use the product. However, this section allows them to change their username or password to more memorable ones. They should be encouraged to do so as soon as possible.

Home is where your students start their tests. All tests or assessments you set them will appear on their homepage. If your school subscribes to both science and maths, all science and maths tests will appear in this one place for convenience.

Levels Tests/My Results allows students to view their summative reports and try out practice questions.

Levels Tests/My Progress allows students to view in one place the results of all their tests taken up to now.

This page shows you how you assign an assessment or test and also shows the sequence of events that follow.

Decide if you want to assign a diagnostic assessment or a summative test. The next section gives advice on which one to choose.

Assign an assessment or test.

The assessment you’ve assigned appears on your homepage.

You can rename, reassign, delete or end the assessment if you need to.

The assessment appears on students’ homepages.

Students take their assessment.

Students submit their assessment.

Students can view their reports immediately.

You can view who has and who hasn’t submitted their assessment or test.

You can view reports for your classes or for individual students.