If you enter any school and ask who’s responsibility it is to focus on formative assessment to drive practices, most likely all of the answers will focus on teachers. According to Tom Guskey, formative assessments have “the greatest influence on students’ learning because they are used during instruction to provide immediate feedback for both students and teachers. They are used to gather information on students’ learning progress.”
Although teachers absolutely need to use formative assessment to drive instruction, they are not the only group that needs to engage in that practice. Principals do, too. Too many principals treat formative assessment as teacher work, not as one of the primary drivers of the school improvement plan and the leadership moves that bring their plan to life.
When leaders do not use their school improvement plans as a livable, working document to help them decide which moves they need to make to build coherence across the system, their schools are at risk of drifting. This is a missed opportunity because it also means leadership team meetings default to management, and the most actionable data in the building, “what students are understanding right now,” never becomes the engine for adult learning and system improvement.
The missed connection: from evidence to leadership moves
Most school improvement plans include big goals. In our work with individual leaders as well as instructional leadership collectives, we consistently see big student goals such as literacy growth, math achievement, equitable access, engagement, and attendance. Those are absolutely worthwhile, but they’re often lagging indicators. Lagging indicators, also known as summative assessments, tell us what happened after the fact. By the time we see them, the moment to adjust instruction (and leadership supports) has already passed.
Formative assessment, on the other hand, is leading evidence. It tells you:
- what students are learning,
- what they’re misunderstanding,
- which groups are being served well (and which are not),
- and what instructional moves need to change next week, not next year.
Yet, many leaders don’t intentionally connect this leading evidence to their school improvement plan and leadership actions (walk-through focus, coaching, meeting agendas, resource decisions).
We believe that leadership impacts learning, which means there needs to be a connection between those leading indicators and leadership moves.
What leaders can do
If the school improvement plan names literacy or tier one instruction as the destination, then formative assessment is the navigation system.
That means principals lead more intentionally. They don’t just ask, “How are test scores?” In one of our data collectives in Washington state, the principals are asking:
- “What are students currently doing that shows understanding of the priority standard?”
- “What are the most common misconceptions we’re seeing across classrooms?”
- “What evidence do we have that our instructional strategy is working for students who have been historically underserved?”
- “What do we need to change in adult practice next?”
This is where we can collect and use evidence to understand our progress and impact on student and adult learning.
Use a simple inquiry structure so the work doesn’t stay fuzzy
Many principals collect data. That’s not the issue. The issue is that there are too many initiatives, too many dashboards, and not enough coherence. Principals need to define a problem of practice, use it to define a priority, create a theory of action (download our collective inquiry placemat here), and collect evidence of progress and impact. This process helps formative assessment become meaningful when it is tied to a clearly defined priority, a small set of instructional expectations, and a shared understanding of what “success” looks like. Otherwise, leaders end up collecting evidence that doesn’t change anything.
What this looks like in principal practice (based on our data collective)
Here are leadership moves that intentionally connect formative assessment to the school improvement plan:
Narrow the focus to a few “look-fors” that match the priority. Not 18 items on a walk-through form. Two or three.
Example: “Students can explain reasoning using success criteria” or “Teachers use hinge questions and adjust based on responses.”
Make formative patterns the standing agenda item in leadership meetings. Shift from updates to evidence.
Ask: What patterns are we seeing across classrooms? What’s the misconception trend? What subgroup patterns are emerging?
- Model the data conversation you want teachers to have. Leaders need to do data talks with teachers individually and at faculty/staff meetings. In strong collectives, leaders practice the same analysis habits they expect others to use.
- Connect formative evidence to adult learning decisions. If formative evidence shows students struggling with the concept of main idea, the next leadership move isn’t to remind teachers to reteach. It’s to:
- plan a short learning cycle on a specific strategy,
- co-plan,
- look at student work together,
- then return to classrooms to see if the strategy changed outcomes.
Formative assessment is highly important for teachers to use in the classroom. Too often, though, principals are not using it to drive their leadership practices, and once they build a habit and begin using it in their daily practices, the growth they see can be life-changing.
