Quality Outcomes

The environment, content and processes that learners encounter in school lead to diverse
results, some intended and others unintended. Quality learner outcomes are intentional,
expected effects of the educational system. They include what children know and can do,
as well as the attitudes and expectations they have for themselves and their societies.

Achievement in literacy and numeracy.

Academic achievement in general and achievement in literacy and numeracy in particular

represent key educational outcomes. Teaching students to read, write and calculate is

often considered the primary purpose of formal education, but students’ regular

attendance and attention in school does not guarantee this outcome. Investigations into

literacy levels in recent years have shown that children in developing countries had lower

levels of literacy than children in high-income countries who had received similar amounts

of schooling (Willms, 2000). A large scale study in Bangladesh demonstrated, for

example, that although basic skills and levels of formal education are related, the majority

of those who had completed primary school failed to attain the minimum standard of

competency in the four subject areas tested (Greaney, Khandker & Alam, 1999). This and

other studies underscore the critical relationship between outcomes and the quality of

environments, contents and processes.

Using formative assessment to improve achievement outcomes.
Assessment of academic achievement outcomes has most often been used in a summative
rather than formative way. Testing information tends to be used primarily as a screening
device to decide who can continue to the next grade of level rather than as a tool to help
improve educational quality for individuals and systems. A project in Ghana has
demonstrated that ongoing assessment of student performance can provide teachers with
the information they need to improve student learning. The philosophical basis of the
project was that “it is critically important to identify what skills each student possesses and
to use instruction to progressively build on this foundation” (Harris, 1996). An assessment
tool that centred on a curriculum-based rating scale was developed and administered to
students in the pilot schools. This tool allowed teachers to determine students’ level of
mastery of previous and current years’ curricula, which helped them determine the extent
to which alternative instructional strategies and remedial content were necessary for both
individuals and groups. This approach resulted in significantly improved outcomes. The
proportion of children who fully mastered reading at grade level, for example, rose from 4
per cent to 21 per cent over just 18 months following the project’s inception (Harris,
1996).