In this interactive workshop, Darcy Fawcett explores how school leaders can use pre- and post-assessments and research-level statistics to evaluate and ‘prove’ the impact of their initiatives on learning. It first explores statistics that use the same assessment for pre- and post-testing e.g., using e-asTTle and a t-test to evaluate whether an initiative cohort made significantly more progress between Term 1 and 4 than expected. It then explores statistics that use different assessments for pre- and post-testing e.g., using e-asTTle, NCEA Qualifications and an ordinal logistic regression to evaluate whether an initiative cohort made significantly more progress from Year 7 to Year 13 than expected. Each exploration consists of a presentation, a practical investigation using teacher-friendly dashboards, then a discussion of actual school usage. The workshop aims to inspire school leaders to use assessments and statistics to evaluate and ‘prove’ their own initiatives.
Darcy is passionate about improving teaching and learning. As a teacher and leader, he was awarded a Woolf Fisher Teaching Fellowship for excellence in educational leadership and ‘in-school’ practice (2017) and a Bright Spots Awards for his data analysis and coaching methodology (2018). In 2021 Darcy founded Sound Data, where he seeks to increase teacher impact through the power of data. He continues to dedicate his career and research to supporting teachers to develop their practice and improve student outcomes. He works with schools and Kāhui Ako through direct contract or the Regionally Allocated Professional Learning and Development Fund.
Find Darcy’s presentation slides here: Darcy Fawcett Using Research Level Statistics To ‘prove’ The Impact Of Teaching Initiatives NZAI 2025
