Assessment Systems for the Future: the place of assessment by teachers

1. Assessment Systems for the Future: the place of assessment by teachers A project of the Assessment Reform Group, funded by the Nuffield Foundation

2. Purposes of the Project • To formulate guidelines for policy on assessment which would achieve the best balance between reliability, validity, cost and benefit to teachers and learners • To clarify thinking by educational professionals, by politicians and by various users of education, about the nature, practice, potential and challenges of assessment by teachers • To provide reports, including recommendations for policy and practice, on the role that assessment by teachers can play in assessment systems.

3. Specific goals To find out how assessment by teachers is understood. To bring together what is known from studies of reliability and validity. To report on current roles of assessment by teachers in UK. To find out what can be learned from other countries. To learn from the perspectives of ‘users’: pupils, parents, teachers, employers. To propose ways of making assessments by teachers more dependable and efficient.

5. Why focus on summative assessment? • Validity – Current testing regimes are too limited in what and how they assess • They are also too susceptible to training in specific items • Impact on pupils, teachers and teaching • Negative impact on motivation for learning • Impact on AfL • Testing dictates the classroom assessment environment • Teachers’ own assessment become summative

6. In favour of summative assessment by teachers • As part of regular work, teachers can build up a picture of students’ attainment • Less pressure on students and teachers compared with external tests & exams • Teaching released from constraints of what is perceived as necessary to pass tests • Potential for evidence from on-going work to be used formatively • Facilitates a more open approach in which students’ self-assessment can take a part.

7. Points against • Widespread assumption (and evidence) of unreliability and bias • Additional workload for teachers • Emphasises the dual role of teachers as assessor and teachers (already present) • Over-elaborate moderation procedures could restrain variety of approaches • Resources are required for moderation (although cost far less than exam and test procedures)

8. An assessment system Comprises procedures for • the collection and judgement of evidence about students’ achievement • the communication and reporting of the judgements • the moderation of teachers’ judgements • quality assurance and control of any external tests that are used • how the results are to be used in relation to accountability of schools and teachers • how local and national standards are to be monitored

9. Required properties of external summative assessment • Construct validity – relating to the content assessed • Consequential validity – relating to the consequences of the assessment • Reliability – the accuracy of the assessment • Resources – costs in time and finance justified by the information provided. (Dependability – the combination of validity and reliability)

12. A role of special tests or tasks? • Good tasks can exemplify objectives in operation • Can supplement teachers’ judgements for individuals where existing evidence is insufficient • Can complement teachers’ judgements by providing uniform evidence for all pupils • Must be seen as helping teachers to come to their judgements not supplanting them.

13. Principles of summative assessment by teachers Assessment by teachers used for summative assessment should: • Involve moderation appropriate to the purpose and uses of the assessment • Be supported by pre-service courses and CPD • Be explicitly linked to formative assessment • Be supported by tests where appropriate • Involve students’ self-assessment • Be based on the school’s programme of work • Use procedures consistent with local and national policies

14. Reports of the ASF Seminars and downloadable copies of Working Paper 1 and Working Paper 2 can be found on the ARG website: www.assessment-reform-group.org