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Policy Framework
The available research suggests that regular use of formative assessments can be a powerful driver of student learning. However, little rigorous research has been conducted on the impacts of formative assessment and data-driven instruction on student achievement, particularly in reform-rich urban school districts.
The Boston Plan for Excellence (BPE), a nonprofit organization that works to improve public education, in partnership with the Boston Public Schools (BPS), first piloted FAST-R in 2003-04; the program is now in place in 28 schools in the district. FAST-R provides teachers with quick, usable data about students’ abilities to comprehend what they read; the intervention is designed to increase teachers’ capacity to differentiate instruction and maximize student learning. The intervention is built around a series of short, low-stakes assessments that provide information on students’ strengths and weaknesses in English language arts (ELA). Teachers in FAST-R schools receive analysis guides, advice from BPE data coaches, and other related professional development to help them identify and respond to patterns in the performance of individual students and groups of students. MDRC is examining the implementation of FAST-R and evaluating the program’s impact on the reading skills of elementary school students.
Agenda, Scope, and Goals
With respect to the intervention’s impacts, this study will generate policy-relevant evidence on the subject of formative assessment and data-driven instruction by answering the following questions:
- What is the effect of FAST-R on overall achievement in reading, as measured by the MCAS and SAT-9 reading assessments?
- What is the impact of FAST-R on students’ ability to draw inferences and to provide evidence for their thinking, as indicated by items measuring these skills on the MCAS reading assessment?
The process analysis will inform the findings of the impact analysis by addressing questions about the extent to which FAST-R schools differ from schools that have not implemented FAST-R in terms of the extent and types of professional development and teachers’ responses to the assistance that they received. It will address the following question:
- What extent do teachers in FAST-R and non-FAST-R schools use data to inform their thinking about students and to change their teaching strategies?
Design, Sites, and Data Sources
The analysis is focused on the 2005-06 and 2006-07 school years and on third- and fourth-grade students. Since the FAST-R program was already under way at the launch of the study, random assignment was not possible; instead, a comparative interrupted time series design is being used for this evaluation. The analysis includes 21 FAST-R and 35 non-FAST-R comparison schools. The goal in choosing comparison schools was to find a set of BPS schools that, in the absence of any intervention, would be expected to perform similarly to the FAST-R schools.
The primary data sources for the evaluation include BPS student school records and surveys of BPS principals and teachers.
What's Next
The final report for the FAST-R project is scheduled to be released in Fall 2008.
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