Key Principles of Assessment

 

Assessment Reform Group’s research-based principles for effective assessment:

  1. Assessment for learning should be part of effective planning of teaching and learning
  2. Assessment for learning should focus on how students learn
  3. Assessment for learning should be recognised as central to classroom practice
  4. Assessment for learning should be regarded as a key professional skill for teachers
  5. Assessment for learning should be sensitive and constructive, because any assessment has an emotional impact
  6. Assessment should take into account the importance of learning motivation
  7. Assessment for learning should promote commitment to learning goals and a shared understanding of the criteria by which they are assessed
  8. Learners should receive constructive guidance about how to improve
  9. Assessment for learning develops learners’ capacity for self assessment so that they can become reflective and self managing
  10. Assessment for learning should recognise the full range of achievements of all learners

(Broadfoot et al., 2002).

Assessments are neither summative or formative, it is the purpose of the assessment that determines what it is. If the assessment is used to inform and adapt teaching then it is formative. If its purpose is to judge the extent of students’ learning of material in the course for grading, certification and evaluation of progress, then this is summative.

Summative and formative assessment is not a binary issue, but a continuum. Some tasks are capable of fulfilling more than one function, but this may result in assessment not ideal for either.

Any assessment must support the curriculum in place in a school, rather than having the curriculum designed to fit the assessment system. Assessment should be the servant, not the master.

To evaluate the evidence we get from assessments, we must consider two key concepts: validity and reliability.

 

Validity

Dylan Wiliam defines validity as:

The really important idea here is that we are hardly ever interested in how well a student did on a particular assessment. What we are interested in is what we can say, from that evidence, about what the student can do in other situations, at other times, in other contexts. Some conclusions are warranted on the basis of the results of the assessment, and others are not. The process of establishing which kinds of conclusions are warranted and which are not is called validation. (Wiliam, 2014)

Assessments themselves are not valid or invalid. It is the inference based on a result that is valid or not. A given test might provide good support for one inference, but weak support for another. For example, a well-designed end of course exam in statistics might provide good support for inferences about students’ mastery of basic statistics, but very weak support for conclusions about mastery of mathematics more broadly. (Koretz, Measuring up 2008, p. 31)

We should question whether a students performance on a one hour end of topic test on cell biology provide an inference about their wider science ability and give us suitable evidence to give them a GCSE grade. The problem often isn’t with the question or the assessment, but with the way in which we interpret and use the results.

 

Questions to consider:

  1. Where do we want out students to get to?
  2. What are the ways they can get there?
  3. When should we check or report progress?
  4. What is the purpose of the question we are asking?
  5. What are we trying to find out?
  6. What do we want to know?

Reliability

In assessments this means that:

  •  
    • If a pupil were to take different versions of the same test, they would get approximately the same mark
    • If they were to take the test at different times of day, they should get approximately the same mark
    • If a students answer paper were submitted to ten different markers, it should return each time with approximately the same mark.

Christodoulou, D. (2017)

Further reading

Broadfoot, P.M., Daugherty, R., Gardner, J., Harlen, W., James, M., & Stobart, G. (2002). Assessment for learning: 10 principles. Cambridge, UK: University of Cambridge School of Education.

Christodoulou, D. (2017). Making good progress: The future of Assessment for Learning. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Fletcher-Wood, H. (2018). Responsive Teaching: Cognitive Science and Formative Assessment in Practice. Routledge.

Kluger, A.N., & De Nisi, A. (1996) The effects of feedback interventions on performance: A historical review, a meta-analysis, and a preliminary feedback intervention theory. Psychological Bulletin, 119(2), 254-284

Koretz D (2008) Measuring Up. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press.

William, D. (2011) Embedded Formative Assessment. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree