the plt process: a teachers’ handbook ppqs for pltshandbook.pdfpossible project questions ppqs for...

The PLT Process:

A teachers’ handbook

PPQs for PLTs

Assessment Research Centre

Melbourne Graduate school of Education

© 2009, Assessment Research Centre, University of Melbourne

Possible Project Questions

PPQs for PLTs

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Contents

Why are we focussing on literacy and numeracy? ...............................................................3

Why are we using online testing and data collection? ..........................................................3

What is the approach to assessment? ..................................................................................3

Who should be assessed using the online tests?....................................................................3

How can we select the tests for each student? ......................................................................4

What are the first steps in getting started?..........................................................................5

What is meant by a developmental continuum? ..................................................................5

How are the tests linked to a developmental continuum? ....................................................5

What is the underlying theory of this project? ....................................................................6

What is the role of the team leader? ....................................................................................6

How does the team leader promote the focus on improving teaching and learning?.............7 Why is the leader regarded as a catalyst and responsible for the professional development

of the PLT members in their school and not the provider?..................................................7

What are the roles of the team members .............................................................................8

Who should be the team leader? .........................................................................................8

What support will be available to the team leader? .............................................................9

What support is available to teachers? ................................................................................9

How many workshops are there with the assessment team? ................................................9

How is the data transferred to the assessment team for processing? ..................................10

How long does the processing take? ..................................................................................10

What is done with and to the test data?.............................................................................10

What is meant by developmental rather than the deficit approach? ..................................10

Why do we emphasise evidence rather than inference? .....................................................11

Why do we emphasise challenge rather than sharing? ......................................................11

How does a team leader encourage challenge without causing offence? .............................11

What is meant by the language of challenge? ....................................................................11

What is the structure of a professional learning team meeting?.........................................12

What is the recommended PLT meeting agenda?..............................................................13

Why is the agenda recommended? ....................................................................................13

What is meant by the review in the PLT meeting agenda ..................................................14

What is meant by PLT identifying a strategy for the student?...........................................14

What is meant by identifying resources? ...........................................................................14

What is meant by planning for the next stage? ..................................................................15

What are the reports that are produced for teachers? How can we download them?........15

What is a rocket chart and how do we use it?....................................................................15

What is a profile chart and how do we use it? ...................................................................15

What is a class report and how is it used? .........................................................................16

How can parents become engaged in this process? ............................................................17

How can the teacher get more information about the project? ..........................................18

How can I get information about the development of the tests? .........................................18

What does the Reading progression look like? ..................................................................18

What does a numeracy progression look like?...................................................................18 What is the relationship between the numeracy progression and the VELS maths

framework? ......................................................................................................................19

Why do some students appear to go backwards?...............................................................20

Can we help the performance by teaching to the test? .......................................................20

What is the Alps online reporting system? ........................................................................21

How can we access the Alps online reporting system? .......................................................21

How and why must I ensure that the student identification is correct? ..............................21

Should the students practice the test? ...............................................................................21

What is the relationship between the progress tests and the NAPLAN tests?.....................22

How do we get started? .....................................................................................................22

Why do we test in March and October? ............................................................................22


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How does the Leader develop the teacher’s knowledge base in literacy and numeracy? ....23 What is the relevance of literacy and numeracy assessment to teachers across the

curriculum? ......................................................................................................................23

What is meant by peer – accountability?...........................................................................24

How frequently should the teams meet and how long should a meeting last?.....................25

What are the SWANS instruments?..................................................................................25

Who completes the SWANS instruments and which students should they be used with? ...26

How is the team leadership related to the performance and development framework?......26

How is the E5 connected to this project? ...........................................................................26

How is the leadership development framework related to this approach? .........................26

How do the leaders help teachers to improve their capacity to use data?...........................26 How does the developmental learning model emphasise all student growth and

development?....................................................................................................................27

What does it mean to develop collaborative decision-making? ..........................................27

What does it mean to identify professional development for team members? ....................27

How does the team leader maintain focus on teaching and learning? ................................27 How does the team leader encourage the teachers to link the evidence to developmental

learning? ..........................................................................................................................28

How does a team leader encourage accountability amongst the team members? ...............28

How does the team leader encourage accountability to the school leadership?...................28

What do we mean by the expression “changing the culture”? ...........................................28

What we mean by attitudinal development?......................................................................28

What are the criteria for selecting leaders? .......................................................................29

What support should the leaders expect? ..........................................................................29

What is the infrastructure that is needed in the school? ....................................................30

What is meant by shifting the culture from “my class” to “our students”? ........................30

What is meant by the statement “set high expectations for all students”?..........................30

What is meant by the phrase “teach to the construct don’t teach to the test”?...................30

What is the difference between evidence and inference? ...................................................31 Why do we use the expression “assessment for teaching” and not “assessment for

learning”?.........................................................................................................................31

How do the schools ensure that this process is sustainable over time? ...............................31

Why is succession planning important?.............................................................................32

Why is networking important for the team leaders?..........................................................33


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Why are we focussing on literacy and numeracy?

The Federal Government has asked states to ensure that levels of literacy and numeracy are

raised for all groups of students in schools. There is little doubt that these are core and

enabling skills for all people. Schools are therefore expected to lift performance in these

areas. From an educational point of view, these skill areas are considered to be foundational

and enabling. It is very difficult for students to learn across the curriculum if they do not have

the basic skills in literacy and numeracy. While the skills assessed in the tests are not all of

the skills in these areas, the high correlations among the various literacy and numeracy skill

sub domains enable the assessment procedures to focus on these and assume the others. This

is of course not a law that makes it applicable to all students, but it is an observation of a

typical link between skills in the tested domains to those in other non tested domains given

the research evidence in the field.

With the SWANS students, the emphasis is different. The instruments are completed by the

teacher using observation data. They emphasise communication and literacy, cognitive and

emotional development and interpersonal skills. For students with learning difficulties, these

are regarded as important enabling skill domains.

Why are we using online testing and data collection?

Online testing takes so much work out of the process for the teacher and controls of lot of the

data quality assurance procedures. Teachers don’t have to administer a paper test; students

can receive immediate feedback; errors in data recording are avoided.

What is the approach to assessment?

Outcomes-based education and assessment require that individuals are able to show that they

have learned and what they have learned. A score is not a sufficient metric for an outcomes

based assessment. The output must be a skills description. Outcomes based assessments

focuses on demonstrable changes in the learner, and not on transmission of content or a score

or code from which we must infer a change in learning. Opponents argue that it is

behaviourist in its approach and that, when all the outcomes have been achieved, some

intangible aspects of human aesthetics are missing. The argument is that there are some parts

of learning that are not observed or measured in this approach; that assessment reduces

education to the level of what can be directly observed and measured –moreover, that

incidental learning, so valued by teachers, is lost, and the assessment of student performance

becomes the central issue of education. Such an argument is really an impoverished view of

learning, because performances are a means through which learning is inferred and by

identifying the cohesive sets of tasks - rather than isolated single tasks - we are able to plan

far more efficient development.

Who should be assessed using the online tests?

The target group for testing depends on the approach and the overall purpose of the testing

program. In some cases the goal is an overall improvement in literacy and numeracy at the

school level and subsequently at the system level. Some programs target the teacher as a user

of assessment data. Others aim at improving long term performance of the school and system

in year 12 examinations, some aim at improving sub groups of students perhaps from ethnic


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or socioeconomic sub populations. One thing is clear - the overall purpose of externally

developed and implemented assessment programs needs to be clearly communicated to the

schools in advance.

How can we select the tests for each student?

Tests need to be targeted to the student ability level. There is no point in giving a test to a

student when we know they can’t do any of the questions and equally it is pointless to give a

test to a student when we know they can do all of the questions. We need to target the

instrument to ensure that the student can successfully complete between one third and two

thirds of the questions on the test. This is a rule of thumb aimed at ensuring that we can obtain

information about all students and identify their zone of proximal development. It ensures that

every student finds the test a challenging one on which the student can be successful and

which will provide information to the teacher to improve their engagement, providing of

course that the items are appropriately written for the age and ability group of the student.

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1SWANS

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1SWANSSWANS

• Progress Test VELS 4.5 – 5.0






To get the best information from the test for each student, the teachers need to match the

student and the test to the relevant VELS level. They can do this either by judgement,

based on their experience with the student, or they might seek assistance by using the

adaptive online VCAA test. The latter would at least give students some practice in

taking an online test. Because the tests overlap a great deal, decisions need to be made as

to which test to use.. Suppose, for example, a teacher identifies that the student is

operating at VELS level 3.0. When the test is administered, the student scores almost a

perfect score. An almost perfect score would mean that the student has only two or three

errors. This might indicate that the student is operating at a level above the measurement

provided by the test. Because there is so much overlap of the items on the tests we

recommend that the student then takes a test two levels higher, VELS 4.0. If this proves

to be too easy again the teacher should raise the level. A weakness of the progress tests is

that they do not progress beyond level 4.5. They are generally too easy. However, the

assessment team is developing tests of higher order skills but these will not be available

until October. In the meantime we are using our experience in testing mathematics and

reading to estimate the student’s level of development based on their ability as measured

by the tests so far. We hope to be able to confirm that and provide more accurate levels

for the higher performing students later in the year.

If the student were to be administered the level 3 test and it proved to be far too difficult,

the same logic applies and the teacher is encouraged to administer a test two levels below


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that. That would be a level 2.0 test. If this, in turn, proves to be too difficult the teacher

is encouraged to use the SWANS instruments.

What are the first steps in getting started?

Select the test, target the test to the student ability range – perhaps use the VELS online

adaptable to establish this - then administer the test best suited to the level of achievement.

What is meant by a developmental continuum?

Any developmental continuum presents two things. The first is that it represents the

development or growth in learning by the pupils. Because it is a continuum there are steps or

levels through which the students pass. It is not a definition of the learning progression or

pathway of every individual student. It is the typical progress. Some students will progress

in quite different ways to this. So the continuum becomes a guide and gives a general idea of

progression for the teacher. They are a framework for the teachers to help them interpret their

observations. They do not address the relative performance of students, instead they describe

absolute levels of competence. They therefore provide the teacher with a guide to the zone of

proximal development and the point at which the teacher can intervene to improve student

learning.

The project team set out to describe the competence levels in order to map student

performance in reading and mathematics onto those competence levels. The results allow

teachers to seek advice on interventions targeted at the level of competence of each student.

The project can provide reports to the participating schools on the distribution of students at

each level of competence. Thus, this innovation allows schools to move from performance

scores, that can be meaningless, to describing performance in terms of competence levels that

are concrete and specific. This made the data more amenable to use in classroom

interventions.

Sometimes the developmental continua are known as described scales. These are also vertical

scales covering a range of levels of development. They are an operational way of using

Glaser’s definition of criterion referencing in that they describe stages of increasing

competence and make it possible to monitor the growth of individuals, classes and schools as

well as systems. They enable monitoring in absolute terms of competence rather than the

relative terms that are available using normative scales such as the 500/100 score system.

Interpretation of the ‘bands’ or ‘levels’ in terms of instructional intervention is their great

strength. Each level gives the teacher a hint as to what is the point of intervention or where

the student is ready to learn.

How are the tests linked to a developmental continuum?

Generally tests are used to construct the developmental continuum. Tests are linked to a

developmental continuum by undergoing a particular process. In general, the continua are

developed using a combination of the following:-

Skills auditing is the process of identifying the cognitive skill needed by a student to

succeed on an item.


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• Item response modelling, which identifies the relative difficulty of the items and

hence the relative order of the item skills

• An identification of ‘bands’ (i.e. the ‘levels’ or what Glaser calls ‘stages’)

• A generalisation beyond the sample of items to define a general level of

development

� Described scales should be independent of the items used to form them. The

description of each ‘band’ or ‘level’ describes the underpinning competence

needed by the students at that level to respond correctly to the domain of

items also at that level, where student ability is roughly the same as item

difficulty.

What is the underlying theory of this project?

There are three underlining theories that form the basis of this approach. The first is that of

criterion referencing. This was developed by an American, Glaser, who in the 1960s

developed the idea that we could infer what a person knew by interpreting the tasks that they

could perform. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s this led to trivialisation of the curriculum,

programmed instruction, mastery learning and the behavioural objectives movement. In 1983

Glaser pointed out that he was referring to the capacity to monitor a person's progress through

stages of increasing competence which are defined by tasks of increasing difficulty.

The second theory is due to a Russian, Vygotsky. Vygotsky defined a notion called the zone

of proximal development. This was the level of development at which a person was most

likely to learn if assistance was provided. It was both a social and cognitive/developmental

step.

The third theory was one developed by a Danish mathematician, Rasch. This theory is based

on the capacity to model, mathematically, the way in which the student learns and

demonstrates that learning. The theory is that the chances of success can be mathematically

calculated using a measure of person ability and the difficulty of the task. When the ability of

the person is greater than the difficulty of the task we can expect success. When the ability of

the person is less than the difficulty of the task we do not expect success. When the ability of

the person is equal to the difficulty, we expect a 50-50 chance of success.

When you combine these three theories and establish a test made up of discrete items we can

measure the difficulty of each itam and arrange the items in order of increasing difficulty.

Depending on a person's ability they will be able to do a certain number of items on the test

successfully. Glaser would argue that we are monitoring the progress through stages of

increasing competence when we monitor how many items they can complete on the test.

When they reach the items whose difficulty is equal to their ability the students begin to get

some right and some wrong. This is what Vygotsky would call the zone of proximal

development. You can find it by arranging test questions in order of difficulty and counting

the number of items equal to the person’s score. In this way the score on a test becomes a

pointer to the level of ability that the student has reached. When we examine the items at and

about at that level of ability we can identify the skills the student is ready to learn. Teachers

could scaffold on those they can do to help them learn the skills in the items at about that

level that they got wrong. There is no point in trying to teach the skills in the items above the

zone.

What is the role of the team leader?

The role of the Team Leader is significant and critical to the success of the evidence-based

developmental learning and intervention method. The Team Leader is a key driver in


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developing teachers’ understandings and ability to strategically analyse assessment data for

the purpose of improving teacher practice and student learning. Team Leaders will develop

skills in team leadership, school and curriculum reform, assessment and testing, and action

research.

How does the team leader promote the focus on improving teaching and learning?

This is achieved primarily through an analysis of assessment data and student observable

learned behaviours. The team leader needs to:-

• Ensure that adequate information is communicated to all at team level.

• Ensure that collaborative and mutual responsibility for student learning is developed

and maintained.

• Maintain the focus of discussion on the students and their observable development

rather than on the teacher.

• Keep the discussion at a level of evidence and dissuade inferential discussions in the

PLT.

• Attend professional development programs focusing on the use of data and its link to

developmental learning.

• Report regularly to school principals and leaders on team function and management.

• Document student learning evidence and related teaching strategies and resources for

later evaluation and evidence of links between intervention and learning.

• Discuss and defend resource use and teaching interventions using student observable

behaviour as evidence.

• Share teaching experiences amongst colleagues during team meetings with leaders

from other schools.

• Seek to develop the teachers’ confidence in using an evidence-based developmental

framework.

• Promote a culture of ‘challenge’ rather than a culture of ‘sharing’ using a language in

the team based on student activities and observable behaviour rather than teacher

activity and inference.

Why is the leader regarded as a catalyst and responsible for the professional

development of the PLT members in their school and not the provider?

• PLT members need to develop their knowledge base in areas of developmental

learning, assessment and reporting, literacy and numeracy learning and teaching

regardless of the discipline they teach.

• PLT members will need to develop a repertoire of teaching and intervention

strategies suitable for a class of mixed abilities.

• Team leaders will need to assist the development of beliefs and attitude among the

teachers that facilitate the learning of every student regardless of background, ability

or learning history.

• Team leaders need to train teachers in using and linking data to an interpretation of

each student’s development and matching a teaching resource strategy to the

students’ readiness to learn.

• Team leaders work with the learning leader and the T&L coach to put structures in

place to ensure that effective professional development occurs within the school, by

� setting formal dates, times and agendas for PLTs to meet and examine the

data and its connection to their intervention practices.

� preparing appropriately for meetings.


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� assisting teacher team members in selecting representative students to

discuss at the meeting.

What are the roles of the team members

Team members have specific responsibilities just as the team leader does. The team should

consist of between five and nine teachers. Teams of this size ensure the opportunity for all

teachers to contribute. Team members should be familiar with the reporting system and with

the developmental continuum in each area. They need to spend the time and the effort to

become familiar with each of the continua. These are the focus of the work. They need to

select students that they believe to be representative of levels on the continuum. Each teacher

should select three students. The three students should represent low levels, mid-levels and

high levels on the continuum.

Work samples and short vignettesor descriptions of the students should be taken to the team

meeting. The teacher should explain, in terms of evidence and behaviour patterns, the

appropriate level of development that they would place the student on within the

developmental continuum. The discussion around the table then should focus on how to

move the students to the next level or to consolidate them at that particular level.

The discussion should always be evidence-based. That is, it should focus on what the

students each do, say, make or write, using the language of challenge such as that provided

by Bloom's taxonomy to describe behaviours. The discussion with their peers then would be

focused on how to change these behaviours to provide evidence that they have either

consolidated at the level or have moved to the next level. A record of this discussion needs to

be made. The record should indicate how long the students will be given to either consolidate

or move to the next level or else?. This might be a number of weeks or even months. For this

reason it is necessary for the team to document the strategy, resources, and the evidence that

they will need to define the conclusion that the student has reached the next level. This is

similar to a medical practitioner making clinical notes about a patient.

Depending upon the size of the professional learning team this means that there is a large

amount of discussion of individual student work within the team. A large team for example

would be attempting to discuss a very large number of students. This may take several

meetings. When this group of students has been discussed, another group of three students

per teacher needs to be added to the list for discussion.

Who should be the team leader?

The choice of leader for the professional learning teams is a critical decision. The leader is

responsible for organising, developing, supervising and sharing a professional process. They

will need a structure for the meeting and a definite purpose to be achieved within the time

allocated. The team leader's role described in these notes illustrates how important it is that

they tightly control the meeting procedures. They need to be able to help the teachers in their

team develop a knowledge base. They also need to help the teachers develop a range of

pedagogical skills. This doesn't mean that the team leader is the font of all this knowledge but

that they may have to seek external assistance to provide it. They need to be a catalyst for

their team’s development.

So the team leader needs to have special qualities. Certainly leadership is an imperative

quality - so too is the knowledge of data use and interpretation and its link to instructional

intervention. The team leader also needs a thorough understanding of assessment and

reporting. They need to understand different forms of assessment that might be classified in


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three ways. These can be the formal structured objective assessment using paper and pencil

tests and objectively scored. The second would be judgement based assessments using

predefined and highly structured rubrics. The third is an informal form of assessment which

is ongoing, unstructured, yet linked to an interpretive framework based in the developmental

continuum. The central glue of these three approaches to assessment is the developmental

continuum. It enables all data on all observations to be interpreted and allows the teacher to

monitor students’ progression through stages of increasing competence while at the same time

identifying intervention points where the student is most ready to learn.

What support will be available to the team leader?

Team leaders obviously need training in many areas. This can be provided either through an

informal process between schools or through team leader meetings that are facilitated by an

individual capable of focusing on the use of data, setting a meeting agenda, and interpreting

assessment and reporting results. The integral part of this is that the data needs to be referred

to and interpreted within a developmental continuum. The new institute of Educational

Leadership may eventually play an important role in helping to develop the team leadership

skills.

What support is available to teachers?

The teachers as team members also need support. It has to be possible for a teacher to ask for

help during the discussion of an individual student. The human resource that the team

accesses is most precious. It must be nurtured, developed and rewarded. When there is a gap

in a teacher’s knowledgebase or skills it is necessary for the team leader to coordinate and

organise suitable professional development. This could take place in a number of ways.

Individual teachers could use the school's professional development fund to seek specific

assistance for themselves. Schools could organise school wide professional development and

input from specialists in various discipline areas or in this specific area of pedagogical skills.

The team leaders could organise cross-school days of input to teachers so that a general

approach to teaching and learning assessment and reporting using data and interpretation is

taken up across the system. The one thing that is mandatory is that teachers are supported in

the decision-making so that they can follow through with interventions that they understand to

be best suited to particular students and do this with a confidence that they are supported by

their colleagues. This should also give the teachers and power to evaluate and make decisions

about which advice is most suitable for which particular situation.

How many workshops are there with the assessment team?

The workshops that team leaders attend are important in establishing the routine and manner

in which the data will be interpreted. The workshops are also important to provide the team

leaders with sufficient information and strategies for transmitting the information back to the

team members at school. In general, projects run externally such as this one involve the team

leaders attending four workshops during the year. This is a minimum. The first workshop is

generally at the beginning of the year for baseline testing. This workshop establishes the

procedures to make sure that everyone understands what is expected and to establish the way

in which data will be transmitted to the reporting software and to set limits on time available

for the testing program. The second workshop is held a short time after the data collection is

complete. The purpose of this workshop with the team leaders is to review the data, strategies

for intervention and ways in which the team leaders can convey the information to their team

members back in school. Records of these discussions are also maintained so that in

subsequent meetings team leaders may also experience a cultural of challenge to address each

other's approach to their work back in school. In the third workshop routine strategies of data


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collection are discussed for the end of year growth assessment period. At this workshop the

team leaders need to discuss the kinds of strategies they actually used in their team meetings

with their new teachers. A review of the year where informal evidence has been used is also

an agenda item as are the discussions of the frequency and duration of meetings. All these are

important in the final meeting of the year after the end of the data collection, usually in

October. The team leaders meet again two weeks after the end of the data collection. By this

time they will have had access to the reports and they are asked to bring to the meeting

examples of student reports and discuss the kinds of growth or decline and suggest reasons

for these in terms of teaching intervention, resource use and student engagement.

How is the data transferred to the assessment team for processing?

Test data will generally be transferred to the central processing unit automatically. To

facilitate this process, the assessment team has been developing an integrated online

assessment and reporting system. The most difficult part will be to log the student on and to

provide the correct identification codes for the student. Once the test is completed and the

submit button is pressed, all the data is then accumulated via Internet connection to the

reporting software package. This will mean that the reports will be available very quickly

after the test has been completed - provided the teacher can ensure that the student

identification codes are accurate.

How long does the processing take?

It is anticipated that a two-week window will be used for testing. This will enable even large

schools to make maximum use of computer laboratories. This is necessary. Schools with

netbooks should be able to take the tests through their wireless system. However it is possible

that a large number of students simultaneously working on their netbooks may place a strain

on the wireless access within the school and some rescheduling or staggered scheduling may

be necessary. This is facilitated by the need for students to suit for tests targetted at their level

of development. Once the process is complete the data is analysed, linked into the reporting

software and the schools will be notified of when the reports are available. This whole

process would be completed within four weeks of first test application and the provision of

the data to the central processing team.

What is done with and to the test data?

The first time the tests are administered a complex computing process is undertaken to

calibrate each of the tests and each of the items within the tests. As there is a range of tests

used all of these tests have been mapped onto the same single underlying continuum. This is

a technical procedure which has little direct relevance to the classroom teacher, but can be

investigated through the ARC website for those interested in the technical aspects of the

process. The main purpose of the calibration is to identify and define the developmental

continuum bands and to be able to convert a score on the test to a level on the continuum.

What is reported back to the school is the student's position on the continuum and it matters

not which test the student takes, since the position on the continuum can be determined

regardless of which test is used.

What is meant by developmental rather than the deficit approach?

We refer to a developmental model rather than the deficit model. By identifying the levels

reached on the continuum by each student and identifying the point of intervention reached

we use the descriptions at the level to identify a set of skills that can be used to scaffold

learning. A deficit model examines the items of the student got wrong and attempt to fix the

problems that the student has. It is often called a diagnostic model and this, in medical


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terminology, assumes that there is something wrong with the student that needs to be fixed.

A developmental model takes the approach that every student is developing in a particular

growth direction and if we can locate the point at which the student is developing and

intervene at that point we can move every student fowrard.

Why do we emphasise evidence rather than inference?

We emphasise the idea of evidence rather than inference because it's possible to describe

evidence in terms of the behaviours of the students. These are the things that the students do

say, make or write. We can elaborate each of these four words to devise a range of

behaviours that are observable. We emphasise evidence because it is possible to explicitly

teach at the level of evidence. That is we can focus on the behaviours that are manifested by

the students and we can affect changes in the behaviours and therefore infer changes in the

unobserved or latent characteristics of the pupil. Change what they do, say, make or write and

infer change in understanding, knowing, thinking etc.

Why do we emphasise challenge rather than sharing?

It is easy to say that we need to replace the culture of sharing with a culture of challenge. It

sounds simple but it may not easily be done and some people could become offended

depending upon the way in which the challenge is carried out. That is reason we try to

emphasise challenge by always focusing on the behaviour of the pupils and never on the

ideas, the behaviours, or the contributions of the teacher.

How does a team leader encourage challenge without causing offence?

This is a way of changing the PLT conversation to shift away from focusing on what the

teacher does to what the student is doing, saying, making and writing. It allows challenge to

be discussed in terms of what students are doing. It focuses on evidence. It avoids a focus on

inference. If this is not done generally, the challenge takes on the approach of challenging the

authority and the identity of the teacher or even the expertise on display. This can induce a

negative response and can be offensive. If the challenge is to seek further evidence of what

the students are doing the tension can be removed from the conversation.

What is meant by the language of challenge?

There needs to be a language of challenge. This language can be provided through the use of

Bloom's cognitive taxonomy. In the table below the use of the words on the right side of the

table allows us to directly describe the kind of behaviours that we are observing in the

students. This in turn allows us to infer the behaviours in the left-hand column. The actions in

the right column can be observed, the actions in the left column have to be inferred.

Know defines; describes; enumerates; identifies; labels; lists; matches; names;

reads; records; reproduces; selects; states; views

Understand classifies; cites; converts; describes; discusses; estimates; explains;

generalizes; gives examples; makes sense out of; paraphrases; restates

(in own words); summarizes; traces; understands

Apply acts; administers; articulates; assesses; charts; collects; computes;

constructs; contributes; controls; determines; develops; discovers;

establishes; extends; implements; includes; informs; instructs;

operationalises; participates; predicts; prepares; preserves; produces;

projects; provides; relates; reports; shows; solves; teaches; transfers;

uses; utilizes


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Analyse breaks down; correlates; diagrams; differentiates; discriminates;

distinguishes; focuses; illustrates; infers; limits; outlines; points out;

prioritizes; recognizes; separates; subdivides

Evaluate appraises; compares & contrasts; concludes; criticizes; critiques;

decides; defends; interprets; judges; justifies; reframes; supports

Create adapts; anticipates; categorizes; collaborates; combines; communicates;

compares; compiles; composes; contrasts; creates; designs; devises;

expresses; facilitates; formulates; generates; incorporates;

individualizes; initiates; integrates; intervenes; models; modifies;

negotiates; plans; progresses; rearranges; reconstructs; reinforces;

reorganizes; revises; structures; substitutes; validates.

What is the structure of a professional learning team meeting?

In general, we recommend that PLTs are small. Large teams encourage some teachers to

remain silent and this is counter to the idea of the team. Both Loddon Mallee and

Northern Metropolitan regions have introduced the idea of triads- groups of three teachers

working as sub teams within a PLT. This could allow the team to be as big as nine

members and still enable all to contribute. The leader then can manage a set of triads.

The following chart was developed by Jill Fitzgerald in the Loddon Mallee Region for the

PLT approach in that region. It can be seen what options exist for the organisation of

PLTs using the triad idea.


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13

Review evidence of p rogress

o f studen ts at specified levels

on the continuum . The discussion shou ld be based

on the ev idence o f do , say ,

m ake and w rite and a ll

in fe rences o f learn ing cha llenged and de fended

P lan strategy fo r inte rvention

to take the students to the

next level on the deve lopm en tal con tinuum

Iden tify the resources that

a re needed-

T im eM ater ia ls

E qu ipm ent

P rofessional developm ent

C osts? & budge t?Loca tion and space?

S tipulate the evidence tha t w ill

be requ ired to es tablish that

m olvem en t to the next leve l

has occu rred and a tikm efram e fo r the next

rev iew

Sharing ideas, experiences, s tra teg ies and resources,

Team Adm in is tra tion ,

The Team m eeting agenda

R eview

S tra tegy

R esources

P lan

What is the recommended PLT meeting agenda?

The meeting agenda is recommended to be divided into five parts. The first ten minutes

can be devoted to a sharing session to allow for administrative and personal issues to be

given some time. However the PLT chair or leader should never allow this section of the

meeting to be extended. The guillotine must be used at the end of 10 minutes. At this

stage the conversation should shift to the evidence presented on the work of the three

students that one of the teachers has collated. This is the review session. Once the data or

evidence of the three students has been presented the team then takes a few minutes to

discuss possible intervention strategies for these three representative students. This is the

strategy session. The next phase of the meeting examines the resources needed and then

the team agrees on what the effect can be expected and how this will be recognised.

These are explained further below.

Why is the agenda recommended?

The fixed agenda is recommended because there needs to be a structure to the meeting.

The chair (team leader) also needs to be firm about the discussion in order to make the

most effective and efficient use of the time set aside for the meeting. We have found that

when this is not followed the discussion drifts off onto other topics and the meeting takes

longer to achieve the same or fewer outcomes. A fixed agenda also allows all members to

understand the process and to know what to expect of themselves and of their peers.


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What is meant by the review in the PLT meeting agenda

At this step, the team examines the data from the student formal test-based assessment as

well as other evidence in the form of teacher observations, samples of the student work

and some case history of the student. It is a combination of several possible forms of

evidence. For example it might use the data from the formal testing program and these

data are presented in the form of graphs and reports from an online reporting software

package. Work samples, behaviour profiles, home backgrounds, teacher observations and

so on. The important thing is that the evidence is only about what the student does, says,

makes or writes and it is NEVER about what the teacher interprets or infers. The latter is

not evidence.

What is meant by PLT identifying a strategy for the student?

Strategy is the teaching approach that the team recommends to a teacher in order to move

the student(s) from one level to the next or to consolidate the student at a specific level.

Suppose this is part of a rocket chart for a student being discussed by the team. Let's

suppose the student is in grade 2. What teaching strategy would you use given that this is

a description of what the student is ready to learn? What strategy would you use if the

student were in Grade 8? What would a science teacher do? An art teacher? A PE

teacher? How would the team advise and help in identifying strategies to teach this

student given the possible set of backgrounds. Suppose the student is from a low socio

economic background? Suppose the student is NESB? Has learning difficulties etc..

These are the kinds of issues that teachers face all the time, but how can the team help?

Cleary the discussion needs to take these things into account and an agreement on the best

strategy needs to be made.

What is meant by identifying resources?

Let’s continue with the example of the student whose reading level is depicted in the

rocket chart above. What are the resources we could advise on for the grade 2 student?

What about the resources the science teacher would need- the art teacher- the PE teacher-

the maths teacher? How much time would we allocate in order to see development in

each of the subjects and in reading? Who is responsible for the reading development? Or

even consolidation? What would we be looking for to conclude that progress had been

made or that the student had consolidated? What materials might we need? Does each

teacher feel comfortable with this or do we need to recommend some form of professional

development for them – they are after all the most important resource. Are there special


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facilities needed? What about equipment? These are the topics the team needs to discuss

to focus on the student’s development and growth.

What is meant by planning for the next stage?

Once the strategy and resources are identified and agreed on by the relevant teachers and

documented in the PLT log, the planning needs to be finalised. Who takes responsibility

for this student. In a secondary school it could be that each of several teachers has a

specific task to undertake. How long do the teachers have? When will this student be

discussed again by the team? What is the evidence that will be used to make decisions

about change and development?

What are the reports that are produced for teachers? How can we download them?

Each teacher will have access to a set of rocket charts (one for each assessment area), a

student profile and a class record. These three charts are derived from the data obtained in

the benchmark data analyses in March and in the final assessment in October. They

represent formal standardised assessments. In between March and September the teachers

will be using judgement and other forms of assessment which all need to be interpreted in

terms of the developmental continuum depicted in these charts.

What is a rocket chart and how do we use it?

A rocket chart is a figure that illustrates the

position of the student in an underpinning

continuum of learning. The levels on the rocket

chart are related to the VELS but are not

directly taken from the VELS; they are derived

from a skills audit of the items in the test. The

test items are in turn linked to the VELS so the

progression is in an indirect way defined in

terms of the VELS pointers. They are however

not year level linked. The descriptions of the

levels are meant to be succinct, so that they are

not a prescribed set of skills that must be taught.

This provides the absolute position of the

student on the continuum and the position

relative to the middle 50% of the class. So it is

possible to see where the student is developing

and to how this compares to the class in general.

The black line indicates the level at which the

student is most ready to learn. This then

becomes the basis of discussion on this

continuum for the team discussion.

What is a profile chart and how do we use it?


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The profile report provides a description of the

level at which the student is most ready to learn

across the tests or measures that have been used.

In this example, the profile is of a SWANS

student showing the level of development for

communication, literacy, cognitive, social and

emotional skills. The teams can then discuss

these levels and the profile of the student. The

implications for teaching across the curriculum,

or for just literacy and numeracy can be the

focus of the discussion, Strategies and

resources need to be identified and the class

organisation advice for the teacher(s)

concerned. This helps to portray the complexity

of teaching and intervention.

What is a class report and how is it used?

The class report consists of five main areas. The first is the student, class and school

identification at the top of the chart. It lists the date, the year level, the class,

identification of the teacher, the subject and the strand within the subject. The second area

is the summary statements of the developmental continuum. These are found across the

top of the graphical section of the chart. The third at the left-hand side of the chart

consists of the student names. Fourth is the set of horizontal bars representing the

performance of the student. The fifth is the grey shaded area illustrating the middle 50%

range of the class.

For each student the bar represents the performance on the test. The right-hand end of the

bar (or the height of the bar) indicates the level of development on the continuum that the

student has reached. For each student this represents the level of readiness to learn. In

this example, a group of students can be found at or about level C on the developmental

continuum. Another group of students can be found at or about level D or E on the

continuum. A professional learning team reviewing this class chart would discuss

strategies for two groups of students. This is common. Most classes consist of a

maximum of four groups of students. Intervention or teaching strategy plans need to be

developed for these groups. So typically, a professional learning team would be trying to

identify teaching strategies for perhaps a maximum of four instructional groups within the

class. This is an important distinction. Individual learning plans are often espoused for

classes of up to 25 or 30 students. In reality, learning plans are needed for, typically, a

maximum of four groups of students. That would cover 25 to 30 individual learning

plans. If the range of performance in any class or year level exceeds four or more

groupings some efforts may need to be made to group students more realistically for

teaching purposes. This might even encourage streaming or partial streaming in some

classes.


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17

The two groups in the class are identified in this instance using lines drawn around the

two clusters of students. Bearing in mind that this is approximately half the normal class

it possible the class would consist of more groups.

How can parents become engaged in this process?

Parents can be engaged in this process. In fact, the rocket chart was developed as a result

of a parent teacher interview 20 or more years ago, when we were explaining to parents at

a parent teacher night using the profiles in English as a frame of reference. We were

illustrating to the parents the level of development that their child was demonstrating.

The parents' general reaction was one of interest, but also one of enquiry. While parents

could understand that their child had developed to a particular level, they wanted to know

if the level was appropriate for the grade that their child was in. In other words, they

wanted to know the norm referenced interpretation as well as the criterion referenced

progress report on the student. In order to demonstrate this we simply drew a straight line

on a piece of paper and wrote the labels of each of the levels on either side of the line.

This was used to show where their child was on the continuum and a shaded area was

drawn to illustrate where the class could generally be found. When we returned to our

office in the Education Department we worked with a graphic artist to draw this in a way

that would enable it to be explained to parents. They drew a box in the middle with

pointy end illustrating the direction of progress and short descriptions situated either side

of a central spine. This became known as the rocket chart. The student profile is really a

combination of rocket charts and can often be used in conjunction with the rocket reports

to illustrate to parents where their child is developing where they expect to see progress

on what and consolidated. In showing parents where the child is developing it is often

possible to engage the parent in assisting with particular types of work at home for leisure


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18

or homework to help improve the student’s developmental progression. While grade level

referencing is important to many parents, the absolute progress, intervention strategies

and engagement of the parents regardless of year level - but emphasising competence - is

the central tenet of this approach. It allows every student to succeed and to demonstrate

progress up to their potential.

How can the teacher get more information about the project?

Depending on the region in which the professional learning team is working there are a

number of ways in which information can be collated. In the Northern Metropolitan

Region the Assessment Improvement Zone (AIZ) has a website. In the Loddon Mallee

Region there is a (dosaymakewrite)Wiki to enable people to contribute ideas. Central to

all of these websites there is the project specific website at the University of Melbourne

for the Assessment Research Centre (ARC). This website can direct people to the

regional websites as well. Links are listed, papers illustrating both process and theory are

provided. The website also gives instructions on how to access both the reporting

information and on how to transfer the data.

How can I get information about the development of the tests?

There are two sources of tests used in the main part of the program. Online tests have

been sourced from the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority, using the

progress tests to the cover years 3 through 8. Tests of higher-level cognitive skills have

been sourced from the ARC at the University of Melbourne. In other parts of the

University's project commercial tests are being used. In these schools, the teachers are

required to purchase the tests and the manuals that come with them, record the student

responses to each item and provide the university with an excel sheet of student right and

wrong codes for every item. This occurs naturally with online testing.

What does the Reading progression look like?

Most reading progressions based on comprehension test skills audits have a very familiar

and almost uniform structure. They begin at the low reading levels, or perhaps pre-

reading levels, of matching words to pictures. They progress through locating

information, chunking information that consists of adjacent phrases, matching words and

ideas through to paraphrase. They progress from a description of a person who searches

for specific and small pieces of information to one who is capable of linking paraphrased

information from separate parts in the short text. Next is the skill of adding external

information to paraphrased clues in the text to infer a meaning not literally obtained from

the text. This begins to move them to both the intention of the reader, the intention of the

author, and the intention of the author for the reader. This can be followed by the

response of the reader to the author’s intention for the reader. While the descriptions of

the progressions may vary somewhat the intention of the reading progression is to help

develop and describe the students to take critical and evaluative stands on the text that

they read whether it is narrative, expository or documentary. Further examples of the

Reading progressions from other projects can be found on the ARC website and courses

are available to learn how this is done. The examples are not included in this manual

because they are often upgraded as a result of obtaining more information from testing

periods and additional input from teachers and other Reading specialists.

What does a numeracy progression look like?

Like the literacy progression, general numeracy progressions often follow a similar

structure. They are also derived from a skills audit of numeracy test items. This means


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that the mathematical skills involved in getting the correct answer for a test question form

the basis of the development of a learning progression in numeracy. It has to be stated

however that the skills involved in solving test question are not the only skills that are

used in defining a numeracy (or comprehension) progression. These test item skills

define the general direction of the progression, but they are not the entire substance of the

continuum.

The numeracy progression often consists of at least three main strands. These are the

number, measurement, and space and data strands. The number strand generally begins

with number recognition and linking graphics to numbers and patterns. Operations within

number might start with single operations using single digit numbers and progress to

multiple operations and multi-step problems using a number of digits. This might then

begin to develop the idea of fractions and extend to number patterns, number rules and

relations. Students might be then expected to combine operations in a particular order

and to link information from tables or charts when performing calculations. They can then

be expected to progress to combining operations and computations involving multiple

steps and a mixture of operations on number to combine fractions, decimals, whole

numbers. In development of measurement competence, it might begin with the

recognition of the units of measurement, the development to basic and simple calculations

with simple and every day measurement units. Conversion of measurement units may be

required then in undertaking single step computations and this leads to the development

of skills involving two or three-step operations as in number but this time using

measurement units and perhaps conversions of units from one measure to another.

Combining operations in order to undertake computations involving multiple steps

involving a mixture of operations in the translation and conversion of units of

measurement might round out at a higher level of numeracy skills in the area of

measurement. In space and data students would first be looking to identify and name

shapes. These might be common everyday shapes and charts and pictures in order to be

able to develop the nomenclature of shape and space. They may then be required to

identify data from tables or graphs, to translate shapes and patterns, and to look at shapes

from a different perspective. Next we can expect students to translate data in tables and

graphs into other forms for purposes of communication and interpretation. They might be

able to combine operations in order to link information from a range of tables and charts

when undertaking calculations; they might be required to perform calculations on shapes

and charts viewing them from different perspectives.

What is the relationship between the numeracy progression and the VELS maths

framework?

In general, there is not a one-to-one correspondence between the numeracy or reading

progression and the VELS frameworks. The descriptions in the progressions are short and

succinct. They are summaries of the kinds of skills that are needed to complete test

questions which themselves are based on VELS progress points. Therefore the

descriptions in the reading and numeracy progressions must be related to the VELS

framework. However the descriptions in the progressions are not related to expected

year or grade level development. They are written to describe the development of

competence regardless of the year level the student is in. The VELS describes the

expected year level and typical development of students in each grade level. The PLT

project and the use of these reading and numeracy continua, do not assume that the

student is in any specific grade. It asks the teacher to focus on the level of competence

and readiness to learn regardless of the year level.


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Why do some students appear to go backwards?

No matter how good the test is, it is not always possible to fully engage the student to

such an extent that they provide their very best performance every time they conduct a

test. Sometimes when the benchmarking exercises are undertaken at the beginning of the

year, the student may in fact perform at their maximum. On the other hand some may be

totally disengaged in the exercise. Teachers can do something towards helping the student

perform at a higher level, or at least at the highest level they are capable of. But it is

difficult for the teacher to overcome the effect on a student who is feeling unwell, who

comes from a home where breakfast is not available; whose language is not English;

whose family is dysfunctional and distressing to the student and so on. To some extent

these issues can be overcome by the culture of the classroom and the school but not

completely. So a test result is a measure at one point in time and this can often be

influenced by these factors that operate in the background to the student performance.

Measures of reliability and consistency are taken at an average level over all of the

students that take the test. Sometimes tests that look highly reliable at an aggregate level

can give errors at the individual student level because of these background factors and the

problems the student has in becoming engaged in the exercise of taking the test. So we

have to take all of these issues into account. They can apply at both benchmark and end

of year testing time. So the gains and losses that students demonstrate in the test

performance can be influenced by these particular factors. The team leaders will examine

the data and begin to identify anomalies in the data, unusual performances, random

patterns of performance, and set a discussion platform for their professional learning

teams. In general there is a reason why students appear to go backwards in their

performance, and there is a reason why some students make spectacular gains. These are

often attributable to the idiosyncratic influences that each student experiences. However,

when the data is aggregate - that is, when many students take the test and we look at the

performance of a whole group of students - it is unlikely that these idiosyncratic effects

are reflecting every student in the class in the same direction. So, we can look at class

level results as being more stable than individual student results. We can also look at

school level results being more stable than class level results. The first thing to do when

there are anomalies in the data is to try and understand why they occur. This provides a

platform for the discussion amongst the professional learning team members to deal with

this matter. It is first discussed by the team leaders at the data workshop with the

assessment team.

Can we help the performance by teaching to the test?

The short answer to this is no! Many people will encourage this in a serious attempt to

increase test scores. It may achieve that. That is, it may increase individual test scores for

some students. Research does show that coaching can improve test performance. When

the pressure is on the school to increase test performance this means that they are under

pressure to increase average test scores. But it is an impoverished view of learning.

Some research conducted at the University of Western Australia some years ago

illustrated that it is possible to coach students to perform better on the test, but it did not

improve their competence.

Improving test scores by direct coaching is not a bad thing. Students need to know the

strategies to do good work on the test. They need to know how to achieve the best result

they can get on the test. This is called becoming test-wise. If you can increase students'

skills to a level where they are more likely to get more answers correct by being test-wise

and using their knowledge and skills to get the correct answer on a multiple-choice test,

then teachers should do so. However, we should not fool ourselves into thinking that they

are better readers or better mathematics students. They are simply getting more questions


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21

correct on the test. The score on the test, however, may then reflect in a better way their

true ability. By reducing the number of errors, made because the students don’t know

how to answer a test, we are likely to get a better estimate of their ability. We are likely

to get a better indication of their zone of proximal development. For this reason it is

better to teach the students how to take a test rather than to teach them to the test by

practicing the items they got wrong. By providing teachers with the developmental

reading and developmental math continuum, the teachers are provided with an

underpinning construct of reading and mathematics. At a minimum the continuum means

that they are presented with a dominant variable that underpins a student’s performance

on the test. There are many people who will argue that such a performance is

multidimensional and multifaceted and cannot be represented in a single construct. This

may be true. It may be, however, that we can present a dominant direction that these skill

developments take. By presenting this to the teachers, we can show them how to develop

the students on a construct of reading comprehension, or mathematics development, in

such a way that their reading comprehension improves, and their mathematics improves.

As a result of this overall competence development as well as their test taking skills, their

test performance improves. If teachers teach to the construct using the zone of proximal

development, where the student is most ready to learn it is more likely that the students

test score will improve.

What is the Alps online reporting system?

The Alps online reporting system is a computer program which was developed and is

hosted at the University of Melbourne. It enables teachers to analyse their school and

student results. Alps stands for the ARC Learning Profile Series. It is a software package

developed by the Assessment Research Centre (ARC) at the University of Melbourne. It

was first developed in 1992 for use with the Victorian Literacy and numeracy profiles

and the software package has been in development and used since then.

How can we access the Alps online reporting system?

The link for accessing the ARC learning profile series (ALPS online) software is on the

project website at the University of Melbourne, Assessment Research Centre project

website. Access this website and follow the instructions. There is also a user manual on

this website. Schools wishing to use an offline version of the software can contact the

Assessment Research Centre to receive this on a thumb drive.

How and why must I ensure that the student identification is correct?

It is critical that the student identification information as outlined in the manual is

absolutely correct. Teachers are asked to supervise students logging into the test when

they take the online test. Any errors in the student identification has to be corrected. If

they have to be corrected by the staff on the assessment team at the University of

Melbourne, this will delay the provision of reports for everyone. It is imperative that the

teachers check students logging information. Errors in the student online identification

data make it impossible to track the student over time.

Should the students practice the test?

The short answer to this is again – ‘no’! The purpose of these tests is to identify the level

of readiness to learn. It is not to demonstrate which student is the best, or that the class is

the best or the school is even the best. The purpose of the test is to help the teachers

identify where to intervene with each of the students. By practising the test and having an


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22

early rehearsal of the online instrument, teachers are in fact cheating themselves out of

good information that they can use.

What is the relationship between the progress tests and the NAPLAN tests?

There is no intention to emulate the NAPLAN tests with the progress tests. The purposes

of the tests in this project are different to the purposes of the NAPLAN. However if

schools provide the reports provided by the NAPLAN test to the assessment team it will

enable the assessment team to link the NAPLAN tests to the progress tests. Bearing in

mind that the NAPLAN tests are much broader in composition than the progress tests, the

link between the NAPLAN and the progress tests is tenuous at best. But such a link can

provide a partial indication of how the students may perform on the NAPLAN given that

the progress tests will be taken just a few weeks before the NAPLAN tests. Whether it is

a good pointer or practice for the NAPLAN depends on how fast the results can be

reported back to the schools. This in turn depends on the accuracy of the student

identification data.

How do we get started?

The first step would be to read this manual. This is a strange instruction to put at point 50

in this PPQ manual. So let’s assume that you have read the manual. Step one would be to

make sure that the computer laboratory or the computer facilities at your school are

available for testing at the times that are agreed upon between the regional office and the

school. We can anticipate that these testing programs will be taken in the about March

for benchmark purposes, and October for end of year reporting purposes. The second

step would be to anticipate, for each student, the approximate VELS level at which they

are currently operating. This will enable the teachers to target which test to assign to the

student. We can anticipate that the students in each class will be taking a range of

different tests targeted at the teachers’ estimate of their VELS level. This is appropriate

because we need to target the test to the range of ability of the student. It would be

appropriate to give students some test practice by perhaps undertaking the online adaptive

test. This at the least gives the teacher additional information about the approximate

VELS level at which the student is operating.

Why do we test in March and October?

Testing is undertaken at the beginning of the year in order to establish a benchmark level

of performance for the student. It also enables the teachers, at the beginning of the year,

to identify the levels for intervention for each student and for the team leaders to bring

this information to a team leaders’ workshop a few weeks after the first test. At that

workshop the team leaders should be ready to discuss the kinds of discussion that the

professional learning team has had on the strategies and resources that would be

necessary for groups of students at each level on the progression. A constant of these

team leaders’ meetings is the diversity and variation in strategies and resources that teams

are using as intervention for the students. This discussion and reporting amongst the team

leaders provides a rich tapestry of possibilities for the teachers in the PLT schools. It also

establishes an accountability framework for the team leaders. In the end they must discuss

how this data will be used in their teams and the notes of these discussions will be used

later in the year when we are discussing progress.

The October test is used in order to provide a standardised measure of performance to

document changes in the pupils. Because the focus is on measuring change the rule for

this is “if you want to measure change don’t change the measure”. While it may be that

the teachers decide to use the more difficult test on the second occasion it is still a part of


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23

an overall test that links on to the developmental continuum. It is still the same measure.

The test data from the October test gives the assessment team a short window of

opportunity to analyse the data and to get the materials back to the schools through the

online reporting system. The teachers are then provided with growth patterns for each

individual student. This can be taken into account when framing reports for the interview

reports at the school level.

How does the Leader develop the teacher’s knowledge base in literacy and numeracy?

The project team focuses only on how to interpret the test data and to link the test

interpretation to decisions about teaching. We rely on specialists in literacy to provide

information about what is an appropriate strategy for intervention and on specialists in

numeracy to provide information to teachers about appropriate strategies for intervention

in numeracy. This information has to be provided by specialists in those fields and not by

specialists in assessment and data use. The team leaders’ responsibility is to identify

where this information is needed by members of the team and, through the school

leadership program, identify how that specialist input can be obtained. Some of it might

be obtained from other team leaders. The discussion of the richness and diversity of

strategies and materials that might be used at each level needs to be documented by the

team leaders at their workshop and made available to all. Taking this material back to

school and working with the teaching and learning coaches provides a channel for the

expertise of literacy coaches, numeracy coaches, the UltraNet coaches among others who

are specialists in strategies to benefit teachers in the classroom. Sometimes the team

leaders are themselves the specialists needed by the teams. In these circumstances, the

cross-fertilisation of ideas at the team leaders’ workshop may well become the most

essential ingredient of this whole project.

What is the relevance of literacy and numeracy assessment to teachers across the

curriculum?

To answer this question we are using the information from item 30 in this manual.

Suppose the rocket chart for the student illustrates that the student is level D. We

discussed the implications of this for a Year 2 student. This might be reasonably

straightforward for the primary teachers. However, suppose the student is in year eight.

What are the implications for the English teacher, the maths teacher, the science, art,

social education, physical education and/or the domestic science teacher? Such a level of

literacy has serious implications in terms of how the student is taught and what the

student is taught within those subjects. It is not sensible to assume that whole class

instruction can be followed when some students’ reading level is clearly at less than

sentence level and an inability to construct meaning from sometimes abstract text. Every

subject tends to present information in increasingly sophisticated ways to students. This

particularly occurs at the secondary schools where the curriculum is delivered by a range

of teachers.


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Suppose this is a rocket chart for a student being discussed by the team. Let’s suppose the

student is in grade 2. What teaching strategy would you use given that this is a description

of what the student is ready to learn? What strategy would you use if the student were in

Grade 8? What would a science teacher do? An art teacher? A PE teacher? How would

the team advise and help each other in identifying strategies to teach this student given

the possible set of backgrounds? Suppose the student is from a low socio economic

background? Suppose the student is NESB? Has learning difficulties etc.. These are the

kinds of issues that teachers face al the time, but how can the team help? Cleary the

discussion needs to take these things into account and an agreement on the best strategy

agreed upon.

What is meant by peer – accountability?

Accountability means checking whether a person has discharged their responsibilities. In

order to check this we have to know what the responsibilities were. The professional

learning team discusses each student and all students at each level, and makes decisions

about the kinds of appropriate intervention strategy and materials or resources that might

be used to try and either consolidate the student at the level or to move on to the next

level on the continuum. The group decision is made and one of the teachers is discharged

with the responsibility of implementing those strategies and using the agreed resources.

The professional learning team log (PLT log) is a means of recording these decisions in a

brief format. There is no need for long and extensive descriptions, but some record needs

to be kept because one of the factors discussed is how long this attempt at strategy and

resource use can be maintained in order to observe an effect. This might take two

months, or a number of weeks. A date is agreed on so that the teacher can report back to

the other members of the PLT about the success, the level of implementation and the

relevance of the strategy and or resources to the learning style and patterns of that

particular student or the other students in the target group. This reporting back is an

accountability exercise. It is peer accountability. It takes a different approach to the idea

of accountability interpreted as a teacher being held responsible for average scores of a

test. The approach used in a PLT context does not take that meaning at all. It focuses on

checking a teacher’s responsibility for using and following the advice and community

decision made between themselves and their peers.

The team leaders are also accountable to other team leaders in much the same way. The

decisions and discussions taken at the team leaders’ meetings are also recorded. The

team leaders take the advice, resources, materials and strategy advice back to their team.


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They link that information with the information that they have obtained from specialists

in the field of literacy and numeracy. All of this information is at their disposal. It is

most potent when it is considered amongst the team members in order to make a decision

about what intervention and which resources might be the most pertinent and powerful

for individual students. Other team leaders therefore are entitled to know from their peers

which strategies worked, what materials were the best and how the team members

implemented these strategies. All of this has to be presented in terms of evidence of

effectiveness. This level of accountability builds a powerful information base for every

teacher to share. It is an intention that this information will eventually be stored on the

Internet for all teachers to tap into.

There’s another level of accountability that is beginning to emerge in schools. When

performance and development reviews are undertaken in some schools, the principal

interviews and reviews the performance of the team rather than individuals. This is a

powerful method of keeping the teams accountable for their responsibilities of mutual

concern, joint decision-making, and the progress of student learning under their care.

This is an approach used by Jill Ramsay, principal at Glen Katherine School in

Melbourne.

How frequently should the teams meet and how long should a meeting last?

The number of teachers in a team has a great bearing on the answer to this question.

Large teams need to cover a large number of students. If each teacher is charged with the

responsibility of bringing the data, work samples and background information on three

students to each team meeting, a team of nine, for example, would meet to discuss 27

students. This is not possible in a single meeting and so several meetings would be

required to cover this range of students. The number of students that can be discussed in

any one meeting may vary from team to team. The length of time it takes to discuss the

intervention, the strategy and the resources needed will clearly vary depending upon the

teachers’ capacity, the tight control on the meeting agenda, the materials available, the

knowledge base of the teachers, the skills base of the teachers, the level of discussion

about the students’ background and learning style information. These are some of the

considerations that need to be taken into account.

Experience from existing schools would indicate that no meeting should last for more

than one hour. We have also learned that teams initially should meet every week. Once

the agenda is firm, and progress is being made, it may be possible to vary the meeting

length and frequency but initially schools should plan to give the PLTs time and

opportunity to meet for one hour each week. It may be that these meetings need to

replace other meetings. This is a matter of the priorities of the school.

What are the SWANS instruments?

SWANS stands for Students With Additional Needs. A series of instruments have been

developed at the University of Melbourne so that teachers can monitor the development

of students who have learning difficulties. These instruments are available online and

enable teachers to gain immediate feedback about their judgements of the students

learning style and progress. The instruments cover the students’ development in

communication and literacy, social and emotional development, cognitive development,

and interpersonal or social skills. These areas of learning were identified by specialists in

teaching students with learning difficulties as important enabling skill areas. Through a

series of workshops with researchers, specialists and teachers of students with difficulties

these instruments were prepared over a two year period. They map on to developmental

continua and are further linked to a new curriculum for students working at very early


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stages of development, which could be described as sub(pre?)-VELS. At this stage they

are not instruments developed for early childhood education. Teachers might be able to

use them in primary schools’ literacy online material. SWANS assessments are provided

by the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development.

Who completes the SWANS instruments and which students should they be used with?

Teachers need to make a decision about this. It’s a part of the decision-making that has to

be made about which test the students should take. If the teacher decides that all of the

tests are too difficult for a student, the teacher would then decide to complete the SWANS

instruments on those students and to collect the reports from the ALPS reporting system

on the SWANS instruments. Advice on intervention strategies can then be gained by the

team leaders or from those teachers attending workshops with teachers and team leaders

from a specialised project focusing only on SWANS students.

How is the team leadership related to the performance and development framework?

It is possible for the teams to be interviewed by the school leadership group as part of the

performance and development review process. This would enable the principal and the

school leadership group to link the professional learning team strategy into the overall

performance and development strategy and the school’s strategic plan.

How is the E5 connected to this project?

The teachers might examine the instructional model (E5) framework to determine the

breadth and depth of their own pedagogical skills. This shouldn’t be done in a

judgemental way. It should be used to identify, in much the same way as the professional

learning team is discussing the students, need for professional development to broaden

the skills base that might be required to cope with the range and diversity of teacher skills

and teacher learning styles with which they are confronted.

How is the leadership development framework related to this approach?

Team leaders are critical to the success of this strategy. The team leaders need to assess

themselves against the leadership framework to identify their own need for professional

development. If the leadership qualities and skills of the team leaders can be developed

using the leadership development framework, the success of the programme could be

enhanced.

How do the leaders help teachers to improve their capacity to use data?

The role of the team leader is critical in helping teachers understand how test scores are

linked to a developmental continuum. The assessment team will work with the team

leaders to explain the reports, graphs and charts to link the test scores to a level of

development rather than a test question. Initially this may be difficult for some teachers.

However once they become used to the idea of using descriptions of student development

rather than scores, their decision-making within this context will be easier. The

workshops that are conducted with team leaders will play a critical role in establishing the

knowledge and skill base of the team leaders in this regard.


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27

How does the developmental learning model emphasise all student growth and

development?

There is a temptation, when we are trying to improve school performance, to focus on

students at the bottom of the distribution. Teachers spend a great deal of time, effort and

resources to improve the performance of students who are struggling. They should and

must continue to do this. It’s true however that in order to get an overall improvement

recognizable in an average score change at the school level, we need to concentrate on all

students especially those at the top of the distribution. A developmental model does not

make any judgements about the level at which a student is operating. A developmental

model simply begins to identify the level at which every student is ready to learn. This

includes students at the top of the continuum as much as the students at the bottom of the

continuum. Every student is entitled to intervention.

What does it mean to develop collaborative decision-making?

This is a simple idea, but a complex and difficult thing for many people to do. It’s made

more difficult because we have found that simple sharing of ideas is not enough. We

need teachers to be able to defend recommendations, materials, strategies, and ideas. The

defence of these ideas should be made in terms of what students do, say, make and write.

It’s easy to share a good idea. It’s hard to demonstrate that it’s a good idea. Unless the

team is convinced that there is evidence of the potential success with the recommended

strategies, great scepticism should be exercised in terms of their potential success.

Collaborative decision-making should be based around the defence of suggestions in

terms of the evidence of student change. Only when the team agrees that the evidence is

sound and that it is likely to be demonstrated should the decision be promulgated.

We can in fact establish some rules of evidence in addition to the do say make and write

maxim. Evidence is what we can see, touch or hear. What we have to decide is do we

have enough (adequate) evidence? Is it appropriate to the situation? Is it accurate? Is

accountable? Is it achievable? Finally, is it authentic and current evidence?

What does it mean to identify professional development for team members?

The discussion among members of the professional learning teams can sometimes

become very complex. Teachers need to be able to say “I don’t know what to do”. When

the team members are unable to help or unable to solve the problem maybe they will need

some specific professional development. The most likely area where this might occur is

with the SWANS students. These are the students with learning difficulties, who are also

unable to cope with the tests, and who are assessed on the SWANS instruments. Most

teachers struggle to deal with these students. The project needs to make available a way

of helping teachers.

How does the team leader maintain focus on teaching and learning?

This is an important role of the team leader. The PLT meeting must be organised so that

the discussion is always based on evidence. When this is the basis and it links evidence

to teaching strategies, learning and teaching become the main focus of the meeting. It’s

important that the discussion is not about the teacher. It must focus on the student and the

student observable behaviour before inferences are made about the learning outcomes.

As soon as the discussion begins to focus on the teacher, what the teacher does, what the

teacher knows, on how the teacher understands the students’ learning, the emphasis on

evidence will diminish.


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How does the team leader encourage the teachers to link the evidence to developmental

learning?

Again, this is important because the team leader must emphasise the importance of the

discussion always focusing on evidence. Evidence is restricted to what the students do,

say, make and write. Evidence is only what the teacher can hear, see or touch. Anything

else is an inference. So the team leader’s job must be rehearsed during the team leaders’

meeting. Even the team leaders must emphasise evidence not inference in their

discussions. This is emphasised because it is important that the teacher focus on what

they can change. We need teachers to emphasise what they can explicitly change at the

student level. Teachers can directly and explicitly change what students do, say, make

and write. They cannot directly and explicitly change what students think, feel, know or

understand. However, by changing what students do, say, make and write they can infer

that they have changed what students think, feel, know or understand. Hence to link

evidence to teaching and learning, the conversation and the discussion on the

collaborative decision-making should always emphasise the evidence.

How does a team leader encourage accountability amongst the team members?

Team logs can help do this. If the team leader maintains a log of the decision-making and

the materials and strategies that have been agreed upon, it’s a relatively simple matter to

use this as a document for accountability at subsequent meetings. Teachers who have not

used differentiated instruction, or have not used explicit teaching of specific students,

need to be able to defend why they make that change and the defence must always be in

terms of evidence of student performance. If it produces the desirable change, then it is

defensible.

How does the team leader encourage accountability to the school leadership?

Jill Ramsey the principal of Glen Katherine School in Melbourne has identified this

process and made it work. She undertakes performance development reviews with the

team and not with the individuals. There are times when she uses individual interviews

but the major performance and development level is the team. This is a way to encourage

team cohesion and accountability to the school’s strategic plan.

What do we mean by the expression “changing the culture”?

The culture of the school is generally driven by the leadership of the school. In this

project the culture of the team will be driven in large part by the team leader. The team

leader has to be able to work through the PLT meeting to emphasise the attitudinal shift

that may be necessary. Teachers have to believe that every student can learn. They need

to believe that every student can develop and that it is possible to identify the zone of

proximal development. This is supported by a broad repertoire of teaching strategies.

They also need a knowledge base of the discipline they are teaching, pedagogy associated

with the discipline, the notion of developmental learning, an understanding of data, an

understanding of how assessment and learning are linked through data and a willingness

to change. These are important requirements. Sometimes the attitude development is an a

priori condition for the successful implementation of the strategy.

What we mean by attitudinal development?

Teachers are generally familiar with Blooms cognitive taxonomy and the recent

redevelopment of that taxonomy by Anderson and Krathwohl. It is not as well-known that

Krathwohl worked with Bloom in the 1950s to develop an attitudinal taxonomy as well.


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This developmental framework is pertinent to the teachers development and involvement

in the PLT. At the initial level people might reject a notion and be unwilling to

participate in any way whatsoever. At the next level of the taxonomy people are at least

willing to coexist with the strategy and to hear and read information about it without

making any commitment to it. This is the level of reception. At the next level teachers

can be required to participate. The team leader may have to use their authority to

“encourage” teachers to respond to involvement and process. This is also a level of

compliance. It’s not long before, within a successful strategy, these teachers may begin

to see the benefits. Compliance may then change to become value. This is an important

step. At this point teachers must be able to see the evidence that demonstrates the success

of the scheme and to be able to understand that there is value for them in their

participation. There has to be a benefit to the teacher as well as the rewards of student

success. In fact the benefit to the teacher may well be in terms of student success. At the

next level of the affective taxonomy, teachers may begin to change their own behaviour

to fit within the requirements of the PLT meeting and strategy. They will change their

behaviour in what we call an organisational change. At the highest level of the

taxonomy, teachers become so committed to the process and so enthusiastic about the

way in which this kind of process can change student learning that they begin to try and

change other people’s behaviour and to recruit teachers into the system. In our first group

of schools this change in teachers took perhaps a year to take shape. The change was

dependent on evidence being available that clearly supported the change in teacher

behaviour and beliefs. This is the level of change we call characterisation.

Teachers can be required to participate. Compliance may well be the entry point for

many teachers. If this is the case, and we are unable to demonstrate to them and other

teachers or through their own work that this is successful with incontrovertible evidence,

we have to admit that they are right. We hope of course that this doesn’t occur and the

effort is made to ensure success. But without evidence, the basis of this project, we are

unable to persuade reluctant teachers. Team leaders will be able to read a thorough

description of this in the “Black Album” which documents the nature of the E5

instructional model.

What are the criteria for selecting leaders?

Given the importance and the critical role of the team leaders this is a very important

position. The success or failure of the process of linking data to decision-making and

improving student learning is dependent upon the successful control, leadership, and

understanding of the system by the team leaders. Their importance cannot be over stated.

The first criterion would be their willingness to participate; to change; their understanding

of how attitudes change; the knowledge of the breadth of pedagogical skills; the

knowledge base that they possess; their willingness to undertake training in data use team

strategies, assessment and reporting, and interpretation of data.

What support should the leaders expect?

The first level of support that leaders must have is from the school principal. The

principal must be convinced, enthusiastic and supportive. The leaders must be given the

authority that goes with the position. They carry a lot of responsibility. They are

responsible for the way in which the team operates, the extent to which their team

improves student learning, the way in which teachers undergo collaborative decision-

making and the way in which this team strategy contributes to the overall school

improvement. With this responsibility there must be authority. Unless there is delegated

authority the team leader’s job becomes untenable. The authority must be there in order

to make change, direct teachers in holding a meeting, making recommendations about


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resources and materials that are required, making decisions about student intervention,

staff professional development, their own professional development, and how information

is provided to the school leadership. Perhaps the most critical concession by the principal

is to make the time available for the team leader and the team members to meet. This

symbolic act will establish the relative importance of the professional learning team as a

strategic movement within the school.

The team leader should also expect system support in the form of time release for

professional development that can be obtained through the team leaders’ meeting. The

system, the region or central level needs to make a commitment that the school and the

region will support the team leader with advice from coaches, specialists, or

administrative staff. The school should also be willing to engage outside specialists for

specific professional development in pedagogy and content knowledge. Assessment and

data use support is provided through the project itself.

What is the infrastructure that is needed in the school?

By and large the major infrastructure change is the establishment of a timetable for

meetings. There may be a need for administrative support in order to fix this as part of

the school schedule and in order to collect and collate the kinds of information that are

available as a result of the PLT meetings and the team leader meetings outside the school.

What is meant by shifting the culture from “my class” to “our students”?

This is an important shift. It takes time for a group of teachers to collectively take

responsibility for all of the students under the charge of team members. This is the most

difficult change that the team leader needs to facilitate. Only when each team member

takes a personal interest in the students discussed at the meeting regardless of whether or

not they teach them, will the culture of “our students” emerge.

What is meant by the statement “set high expectations for all students”?

This is an often quoted phrase. It’s easy to set high expectations for high performing

students. Sometimes it’s difficult to set high expectations for low performing students.

Even the expression of “low performing” and “high performing” have value connotations

associated with them. Setting standards is about making sure that every student

understands that they are expected to grow and develop. Realistic targets need to be set

for every student. Some students will have the potential to make great leaps. Some

students will have the capacity to make small leaps. The size of the leap is not related to

the expression “high expectations”. That expression means that every student has an

expectation that they will develop within a particular time by the maximum that we can

hope for. This is a high expectation for all students regardless of the size of the leap.

What is meant by the phrase “teach to the construct don’t teach to the test”?

There is always a temptation when we use test results and we want to improve our test

scores, to focus on the questions that the student got wrong and try and teach them how to

do those kinds of items in the future. The test can be used to identify the kinds of things

to teach. But the kinds of things that need to be taught are embedded within what the test

identifies as the zone of proximal development. If the test is properly constructed it’s

possible to rank order the test items with the easiest item at the bottom and the most

difficult question at the top. If the test works well and the student has been engaged in

the test (and these are difficult conditions to fulfil) then the student should be able to get

the easy items correct but will get the difficult items wrong. In between the difficult and


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easy items there is a range of items that challenge the students and the student will get

some of these questions right and some wrong. If the test is working properly we can

take the score on the test (for example score of 20 out of 30) and count up from the

bottom to the item with the rank that equals the score (with a score of 20 out of 30 for

instance it should be possible to count to the 20th easiest item). Possibly the student will

have got the first 15 correct, and out of the next 10 about half will be right and half will

be wrong. The last five questions should all be wrong. The zone of half and half around

the test score is the zone of proximal development. The teachers can use the items that

the student got right to scaffold learning to develop those that the student got wrong. But

trying to teach directly the most difficult items on the test that are beyond the student’s

ability can be a waste of time and worse it will frustrate the student and embed a sense of

failure. It is more efficient to take the developmental progression that underpins the test

and identify the zone of proximal development as the level at which student is

developing. Teaching at that level will help to consolidate student skills by scaffolding,

and help them move to the next level. This is what is meant by teaching to the construct

and not teaching to the test. A teacher who teaches to the test may try to teach all of the

questions that the student got wrong regardless of their difficulty relative to the student’s

ability.

What is the difference between evidence and inference?

In simple terms evidence is what you can see, touch or hear. It is what the students do,

say, make or write. Inferences are what we conclude from the evidence or data. An

inference is our conclusion about things we cannot see. These might be what the student

knows, understands, feels or thinks. An estimate of a student’s reading comprehension is

an inference that we draw because of what the student writes as a result of reading, what

the student says as a result of their reading; what the student does on a test as a result of

their reading; what the student draws or creates as a result of their reading. Mathematical

competence is a construct and we infer the level of development on the construct from the

problems that the student solves, the discussions that the student has with us about their

mathematics; what the student writes in solving mathematical problems; and what the

student does and how they behave in mathematics class.

Why do we use the expression “assessment for teaching” and not “assessment for

learning”?

Assessment for learning is an attractive expression. It signals that the teacher has the

student in mind when undertaking assessment. It’s as if assessment itself will promote

learning. It doesn’t. The old “straw man argument” that assessment is damaging to

students is often given credibility because we as teachers claim that assessment promotes

learning. The expression “assessment for learning” promotes that impression. There is

old story used by opponents to testing that it doesn’t matter how many times you weigh

the pig it doesn’t get any heavier. It doesn’t matter how many times you assess the

students if assessment is what you use for learning, the students are unlikely to learn

much from the assessment. This is why we would argue that assessment should be seen

as providing information to the teacher to make decisions about intervening with the

student in order to promote learning. It’s more correct therefore to argue that assessment

is for the teacher and teaching in that it provides the data and the evidence that the

teacher needs in order to make decisions that will promote learning.

How do the schools ensure that this process is sustainable over time?

Sustainability is an important concept whenever changes are implemented. At the

beginning of each year team leaders need to be re-establishing contact with one another.


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They should be reaffirming and re-establishing the plans for the PLT activities for the

school year. Structures need to be put in place such as the March testing and the October

testing programs and bookings made for use of the school computer laboratories or

computing facilities. The team leaders need to ensure that all of the team members are

undertaking professional reading. By and large the project will attempt to use the Internet

to provide advice about reading and interactive websites can be used for the teachers to

make suggestions as well. The system is sustainable if the process is simple and efficient

and effective. For that reason the assessment team needs to make sure that systems and

procedures that challenge teachers technologically are removed and replaced by simple

easy-to-use and fast feedback systems and solutions.

There is a need for the team leaders to revisit the developmental progressions with their

team members at the beginning and end of every school year to ensure that the

progressions are still current and valid. All members of the teams should be familiar with

any updates on the computer network, the school’s facilities and timetables and the new

school leaders and leadership teams are informed and are on side with the system. Data

discussions need to take place at the beginning of each year and there must be a complete

avoidance of “watering down” of the process. The team leaders and the teams need to

refresh their approach to collaborative decision-making, challenge rather than sharing,

focus on evidence rather than inference and to practise these things at the beginning of

each year.

Schools need access to a list of all the other network schools, particularly like schools,

that are involved in using the same procedures and the contact details need to be

published. For instance there should be a published list of experienced PLT leaders. The

PLT leaders should lead by example in maintaining the action research cycle that the

teams implement. The discussion on professional development should always focus on

explicit, focused and targeted teaching using differentiated instruction for different levels

of development amongst the students. These are important requirements for the team

leader network, in addition to ensuring that the meetings and their agendas are

maintained.

Why is succession planning important?

Leaders will move, retire and leave the system. New leaders must be ready to step up to

the position. So the importance of the network of experienced leaders is emphasised.

There needs to be a maintenance of action research records across schools so that new

leaders can access information that will be helpful to them in organising and running and

sharing their field team meetings. There needs to be a continuous network of PLT group

leaders. They should agree to meet regularly once a term perhaps in the twilight meeting.

Among those team leaders a leadership group needs to emerge that is responsible for

convening the meeting, seeking funding to support it and setting an agenda that will keep

the team leaders engaged. Each PLT should have a deputy or a proxy that can attend the

team leaders meetings should the regular leader be unable to attend. This will provide an

opportunity for the other team members to learn what happens at the team leaders’

meetings and this can in turn help to support the team leader at school. There should be a

project folder on the school server that maintains up-to-date information about strategies

and materials as well as information from other schools’ contacts and lists of experienced

people who are willing to share advice.

Once it becomes available this will be an invaluable resource to all of the teams and it

may be necessary to establish a PLT network within the UltraNet.


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The network of team leaders itself should have an induction plan for new leaders as they

come on board. This will lead to the team leaders themselves finding a way of

developing the skills and attitudes of team leaders as they join and give them assistance in

running team leaders meetings and reinforcing the PLT procedures.

Why is networking important for the team leaders?

Networks enable the team leaders to maintain contact across schools and to continuously

refresh their perspective on the way in which PLT meetings operate. They provide a level

of support for the team leaders that might not be otherwise available. It gives an external

constituency of support for the team leader. There is a group of people outside to whom

the team leader can turn for advice, support and encouragement. It enables all team

leaders to maintain contact with experienced leaders. It enables them to be linked into

meetings, resources, literature and advice. It will provide support for team leaders to

structure their meetings and to establish peer reporting procedures and duties. It will

establish and formalise partnerships and links across schools at more than the principal

level. It will help assist in cross school reporting on strategies and resources.

What is a PLT Log?

We use a log as an informal documenting procedure for decisions made as part of the

PLT. Given that the PLT deals with many students over the course of a year, and makes

plans for each of them there is a chance that the team will forget the details if some

record is not kept. The log is a simple recording form. Our intention is to turn it into an

electronic worksheet that will capture the data and make it easy to process is the

information and retrieve suggestions. Essentially the log asks the team to record the

evidence of where the student is currently at on the developmental continuum; what is the

target? How will the target be reached and how will we know when the target is reached.

The team leaders are asked to bring a sample of logs to the workshop for discussion and

accountability among their peers.

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