Enhancing Teachers’ Formative Assessment Practices Through Learning Trajectory-Based Professional Development

This research study was designed to evaluate the extent to which professional development (PD) designed around a learning trajectory (LT) on geometric measurement of area was successful in helping teachers use the LT to conduct formative assessment. Six 3rd-grade teachers from the Midwest participated in 20 hours of PD centered on the LT. Data to evaluate the PD were obtained from a set of questionnaire prompts administered before and after teachers’ participation in the PD. The results suggest that teachers increased their ability to elicit and interpret student thinking and use assessment results to make instructional decisions. We consider the design and evaluation of this PD to be valuable for future efforts aiming to use LTs to support teachers in their formative assessment practices.