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EFFECTIVE ADMINISTRATION AND

MANAGEMENT OF HIGH STAKE ASSESSMENT

EXAMINATIONS COUNCIL OF ZAMBIA

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OCCASION: Continuous Assessment Programme :

Orientation Workshop for Officers and Head teachers from Pilot Schools.

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TARGET GROUP:    Head teachers    District Education

Standards Officers (DESOs) Principal Education

Standards Officers (PESOs)

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GLOSSARY: 

To orient: familiarize, get to know, make conversant

 

Pilot: experimental, trial, test.

 

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THE CONTINUOUS ASSESSMENT PROGRAMME

The following work has to be done:  Guidelines for teachers developed Assessment tasks at Grade 5

developed  Assessment schemes developed  Schools for the pilot sampled

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ASSESSMENT FOR EFFECTIVE LEARNING

The Ministry of Education Policy “Educating Our Future” on effective schools, states that “Every school is expected to be characterized by the pursuit of excellence in the intellectual and personal development of its pupils”. Excellence in students does not come accidentally. Excellence has to be nurtured, monitored and evaluated.

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Administrators, teachers therefore need to constantly monitor the learning achievement of students on the prescribed learning units as well as on the whole course. The evaluation of the teaching/learning process is undertaken by teachers through continuous testing of their students.

 

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The underpinning philosophy of teacher continuous assessment include:

 Continuous assessment is to inform teaching and to improve learning while there is still time to do so.

 Sound continuous assessment calls for graded assessments that are based on several methods of assessment.

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PURPOSE OF ASSESSMENT

 

Assessment has three main functions namely;

 

(i) to diagonize the learning process in students. Assessment as a diagnostic tool provides an understanding of what student has learnt so that remediation and further learning may take place.

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(i)      to provide information or to make inferences about the functioning of institutions and their accountability.

(ii)     to certify or qualify students.

 

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CONCEPT OF ASSESSMENT FOR LEARNING

Assessment for learning entails that;

    students have untapped potential and can learn when given the opportunity

        teachers will use different assessment tools

  teachers will focus on formative assessment in their teaching and refrain from relying on end of unit/term tests

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   teachers will view themselves as coaches and not judges

  teachers will realize that continuous assessment exercises give students critical thinking, problem solving and research skills

   teachers will help students to become better at monitoring their own

learning and reflecting on their progress so that they develop a further sense of their own abilities teachers and parents to be involved more in talking about the learning achievement of their children.

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CONTINUOUS ASSESSMENT AND THE TEACHER

  Teachers are expected to practice continuous assessment in class in order to:

  help students establish, refine and achieve learning goals

  in trust that students want to learn

  in expectation of students to develop and apply important skills

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in the belief that students have untapped potential and can learn when given the opportunity

focus their teaching through formative assessment

     help students better at monitoring their own learning and reflecting on their progress so that they develop a further sense of their own abilities

  involve parents more in talking about learning with their children

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Teachers therefore should aim to use continuous assessment to improve learning in their students. It is in continuous assessment for learning that students will be enabled to pass national examinations. Continuous assessment therefore encourages students to manage their learning under the guidance of their teachers and lessens pressure and anxiety over external or final examinations.

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CONTINUOUS ASSESSMENT AND THE STUDENT

 

Continuous assessment tests will;

 

    provide feedback to students on the progress they are making in their lessons

  motivate students to improve in their lessons

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    allow students to build portfolios/samples of their work overtime to demonstrate progress and improvement

 enable students to learn to judge the quality of their work on the

way to become independent, lifelong learners

make students see their own growth, in knowledge and

skills

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BENEFIT OF CONTINUOUS ASSESSMENT TO THE

STUDENT

 Continuous assessment activities will enable the students;

  to understand their achievement targets and learning goals

    to build confidence in themselves as learners and lay a foundation

for lifelong learning

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  to be receptive to descriptive feedback as against judgemental feedback. Descriptive feedback provides the student with ideas for improvement to engage in regular self assessment

  to talk freely with their teachers

and families about their achievement

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RATIONALE FOR COMBINING CLASSROOM–BASED ASSESSMENT IN

THE FINAL EXAMINATION SCORES/RESULTS

Teachers are the best assessors of their students

 Assessment will be done throughout the learning process

 Students will be credited with the good work they have done throughout the course

 To remove stress and anxiety created by final examinations

 To remove high stake image on final examinations

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To make teachers to be accountable for the learning achievement in their students

 

  To motivate students to apply themselves fully to their studies at all times and not only when they are preparing for external or final examinations

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VARIANCE IN TEACHER ASSESSMENT

 

There is evidence from Examining Boards that show that teachers could predict well the grades of their students taking external examinations. The evidence suggest that teachers make reliable assessments of their pupils. It is accepted that a teacher is able to put his students in a class in an order of merit.

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What the teacher however cannot do is to accurately assess the standard of his/her students in relation to those of other students in different classes in the same school or in other schools. Teacher continuous assessment therefore need to be moderated by an External Examining body. In Zambia this role is performed by the Examinations Council of Zambia.

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MODERATION AND VARIANCE IN TEACHER ASSESSMENT

 

Examining Boards and teachers have complete agreement about the ranking of the work of candidates presented by a centre or school. Producing a ranking order of candidates is one aspect and the merits of the work presented by the candidates is another. The merits of the work presented by candidates is determined through use of moderation procedures at the external Examining Board.

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Moderation of candidate results however does not attempt to achieve complete agreement with results awarded by teachers. Objectivity of that kind is not desirable as it would have put undue pressure to bear on the criteria for assessment. The method of moderation, however, has to be capable of detecting bias or possible prejudice against a student. It has also to be capable of detecting a malpractice on the part of a teacher such as lenient or hash marking of scripts.

        

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The moderation procedure adopted should therefore decide whether differences between teacher assessment and the moderator were significant.

The moderation procedure used therefore promotes an assumption that concerns the passing percentage. The passing percentage of candidates in an examination is closely based on the percentage pass in the previous year or perhaps two or three years. The moderation parameters applied is concerned essentially with adjustment of the outcome of assessment to improve fairness of groups and individuals.

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Moderation is therefore designed to ensure fairness by adjusting results where there seems to be inconsistencies or differences in the way procedures were followed or applied.

 

The passing percentage therefore becomes a compromise based on the standard of teacher assessment and that of the Examining Board. The standard falls somewhere between the passing percentage suggested by teacher assessment and that suggested by the Examining Board.

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CONCLUSION

It follows that in a subject which records a higher percentage pass than in the previous year, moderation adjustments will be effected in order to reduce the number of candidates passing.

 

In undertaking moderation of examination results an external Examination Board utilizes technical and statistical considerations.

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The End