Making consistent judgements

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Assessment Professional Learning Module 5:

Making Consistent Judgements

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Assessment OF learning:occurs when teachers use evidence

of student learning to make judgements on student achievement

against goals and standards.

Assessment FOR learning:

occurs when teachers use inferences about student progress to inform

their teaching.

Assessment AS learning:occurs when students reflect on and monitor their progress to inform their future learning goals.

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As educators it is imperative that we make high quality judgements about student learning.

What does that mean we should do?

“ How can you possibly award prizes when everyone missed the target?” said Alice.

“Well,” said the Queen, “Some missed by more than others and we have a fine normal distribution of misses, which means we can forget about the target.”

Lewis Carroll, quoted in Rowntree, 1987, pp 181-2

EXAMPLE

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Quality and trustworthiness in evidence of learning requires both:

• valid (fair, accurate, appropriate) and • consistent (reliable)

assessment judgements.

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Valid

Everyday synonyms:- truthful- appropriate- justified- convincing- accurate- legally acceptable- fair

For valid assessment fairness, accuracy and appropriateness matter.

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Validity is a matter offairness, appropriateness and accuracy

• Are the tasks constructed, presented and conducted so that all students have an equal chance of demonstrating their learning?

• Do the tasks represent all the valued learning you want the students to have undertaken? Do they assess a sample of all the important concepts and objectives?

• Are the assessment tasks probing the students thinking to the depth you want - or are they able to “get away with” a superficial understanding?

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Validity is a matter offairness, appropriateness and accuracy

• Are the assessment tasks monitoring what you think they are (and not some intervening prerequisite skill, or conceptual understanding)? In particular, do the assessment tasks require specific knowledge or skills which some students may not have, and which have not been explicitly taught? (e.g. how to: read, draw a graph or ‘google’?)

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Assessment is valid if it …

• assesses appropriate content and objectives• provides information which is useful for some

valuable purpose (for/as/of)• is assessed with sufficient accuracy• is fair to all students.

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Consistency is a matter of reliability

How confident can you be that judgements that you have made are not significantly affected by chance factors such as:

• how the student was feeling on the day?• how the assessor was feeling on the day?• who the assessor was?• luck in being assessed on some things and not others?• luck in that the mode of assessment suited the student particularly well (or didn’t)?

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Examples of everyday use of the term “reliability”

A set of kitchen scales is reliable if ... A clock is reliable if … A train is reliable if … A friend is reliable if …

An assessment task is reliable if … (what?)

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Definition of consistency

The consistency of an assessment is the reliability with which it assesses whatever it assesses.It is the reproducibility that is the focus.

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The assessor matters in making consistent judgements.

We are human and our judgements may be influenced by many factors besides the actual standard of work.

• INTER-rater reliability: if another assessor judged the work, would the student be

awarded the same result?

• INTRA-rater reliability: if the same assessor judged the work on another day would the

result be the same?

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Consistent assessment

An assessment is consistent if the scores that students get are reliable:

• from one occasion to the next• from one form of assessment to another• from one assessor to another.

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The difference between consistency and validity

Consistency (or reliability) is a technical question. Will work be judged in the same way every time, regardless of who assesses it, or how, or when?

Validity has both a technical element (does the assessment accurately judge what it says it judges?) and a philosophical one (is the assessment appropriate and fair?).

Validity is an indication of the value and correctness of what we do.

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Consistency, alone, is not sufficient.

Assessment must also be valid (fair, appropriate and

accurate).

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Each step in the assessment process involves:

• the possibility of error• value-driven decisions• assessment processes that may disadvantage some types of students.

Use collaborative planning processes, transparency of assessment tasks, criteria, rubrics and variety to maximise valid and consistent judgements.

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Strategies and Protocols

For valid and consistent judgements of student learning progression, we need to put in place strategies such as:• common assessment tasks planned collaboratively• shared design processes for assessment tasks and for rubrics• comparing work with exemplars (e.g. assessment maps)• cross-marking of sample assessment tasks• moderation and consistency protocols.

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Critical stages of the Moderation Process

1. Developing a common understanding of what is to be assessed and the purpose of the assessment

2. Drafting the assessment task requirements3. Drafting the criteria- or marking scheme4. Sample assessing5. Final assessing.

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The final assessing stage of moderation may involve:

• assessors meeting together• sharing of assessed work samples• discussion of queries• cross-marking each other’s work samples• discussion of borderline or special circumstance cases.

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When deciding HOW to make more valid and consistent judgements “efficiency” issues must also be considered:

• time efficient (yours and your students!)• learning efficient (maximises learning)• teaching efficient (reduces wastage)• cost efficient

??? other factors

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Making consistent judgements is important.

But consistency is not enough - we have to make valid judgements as well.

Assessment FOR learning

Assessment OF learning

Assessment AS Learning