You are here: Making an overall teacher judgment This research investigation by Kerry Mitchell and Dr Jenny Poskitt explores teacher understandings of Overall Teacher Judgments in primary schools, and how teachers are applying OTJs in the classroom and school. An overall teacher judgment (OTJ) involves drawing on and applying the evidence gathered up to a particular point in time, in order to make an overall judgment about a student's progress and achievement. No single source of information can accurately summarise a student's achievement or progress. A range of approaches is necessary in order to compile a comprehensive picture of the areas of progress, areas requiring attention, and what a student's unique progress looks like. Using a range of approaches also allows the student to participate throughout the assessment process, building their assessment capability. Because of this, to assess a student in relation to National Standards , teachers need to bring together a range of evidence in order to form an overall teacher judgment. Overall teacher judgments of achievement and progress involve combining information from a variety of sources, using a range of approaches. Evidence may be gathered in the following three ways: Observing the process a student uses to complete a learning task. Conversing with the student to find out what they know, understand and can do. This gathering of information from a range of sources increases the dependability of the OTJ. The diagram below explains in more detail. Any point of the triangle provides an approach to gathering evidence