Linking student achievement to teacher assessment practices: Issues, challenges, and implications for educational research and practice in Italy

The use of assessment for instructional guidance represents one of the most powerful levers for school improvement. With a strong emphasis on the alignment of teaching, learning, and assessment, the reconsideration of assessment methods and strategies has become relevant, as well as the need for a new assessment culture more responsive to educational policy requirements, school system needs, and teacher practice instances. In this vein, for example, formative assessment has been recognized as integral to curriculum design and to the learning journey of all students. More specifically, teacher assessment practice and teacher assessment literacy have been recently considered as crucial for teacher professionalism, as well as for the improvement of student learning. However, despite the emphasis on teacher assessment literacy, recent research confirms that teachers are not prepared to effectively integrate assessment into their daily teaching practice and that low levels of assessment literacy tend to negatively affect student learning achievement. Entering this lively debate, the present chapter identifies which assessment practices are more frequent in the Italian school system and tries to understand if some assessment practices are more likely to influence student learning as measured in the INVALSI tests. Using Maths and reading test scores from the INVALSI database (grade 5), as well as data from the INVALSI Teacher Questionnaire (2017/2018), OLS regression models and student fixed effects models have been performed. Analyses show that teachers’ own design of standardized tests and the use of online assessment tools (a rare practice) are associated to positive student performance. We interpret this association as the consequence of students’ socialization to the practice of testing.