The effect of common formative assessments on teacher efficacy

In 2010, the Indiana Department of Education stopped providing schools supplemental money to be allocated for individual school Professional Development funds. This forced building level administrators to develop creative means to provide professional development opportunities. During this same period of time, the Indiana Department of Education advocated for an increased emphasis on teacher evaluation and specifically, tying teacher evaluation to student performance. Teacher collaboration and data-driven instruction have often been cited as "best practices" in terms of school effectiveness; however, very little research has been conducted showing their effect on teacher efficacy. The purpose of this research was to evaluate the usage of Collaboratively Developed Common Formative Assessments as an alternative means to provide professional development and improve teacher efficacy.;A quantitative study was utilized to measure the effect Common Formative Assessments would have on teacher self-efficacy. Pre and Post-test survey data was collected to measure and compare the changes that occurred between two groups of teachers: Treatment group (teachers utilizing Common Formative Assessments) and control group (teachers that utilized traditional summative assessments). In this study neither group experienced a statistically significant change in their self-efficacy score; however, it was interesting to note that in this population, while the treatment group's self-efficacy increased, the control group's self-efficacy score decreased after a year of using only traditional summative assessments. Further research with a larger population of teachers should be done to determine whether this decline was an isolated incident.