Publications & Resources

Using Key Conceptual Ideas to Improve Teacher Use of Formative Assessment Data

May 2011

Terry P. Vendlinski and Julia Phelan

This paper reports on the outcomes achieved from an innovative professional development program, POWERSOURCE©, that helps teachers apply key foundational concepts and formative assessment to math content studied in the 6th, 7th, and 8th grade. The authors found significant gains from students’ pretests to students’ posttests, attributed to POWERSOURCE©. The findings suggest that the gains were associated with changes in teacher thinking and that such change may be easier for more experienced math teachers in earlier rather than later middle school grades.

Vendlinski, T. P., & Phelan, J. (2011). Using key conceptual ideas to improve teacher use of formative assessment data (CRESST Report 794). Los Angeles: University of California, Los Angeles, National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing (CRESST).