Best Practice

Using summative assessment data to improve student outcomes

Pupil Attainment & Progress Examinations & Qualifications Case studies (assessment)
What is summative assessment data used for, how can we ensure it is purposeful, valid, and reliable, and how can school leaders use it to inform school improvement and to improve student outcomes? Clare Duffy describes her school’s approach
Impact: When planning how to use data in school, leaders should ask themselves two questions to ensure impact – what is the data going to be used for and how can we ensure it is purposeful, valid, and reliable? - Adobe Stock

The use of data in school can sometimes get a bit of a rough deal. Many teachers can remember excessive data-gathering in schools, often serving little useful purpose in improving student outcomes.

Thankfully now, particularly with the recommendations from the Workload Reduction Taskforce (DfE, 2024) stipulating that teachers should not carry out repetitive data entry and that the use of data should be sensible, we have seen considerable improvements in the use of data for monitoring in schools.

Indeed, a recent Teachertapp survey (2025) found that approximately 36% of teachers are required to provide pupil data to their senior leadership team once per half-term, a reduction of 14% since 2019.

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