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© Myra Young Assessment 2011. All rights reserved.

Provided for the use of participants in AM circles in North Lanarkshire

Council with staff in their own establishments. Please do not use

in any other way without permission.

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A M Circles: Session Four Sound Professional Judgements

(Intelligent Accountability)

North Lanarkshire CouncilJanuary 2012

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Objectives of Session 4

To reinforce the need for rigour in arriving at a summative judgement of pupils’ progress

To model the process of arriving at sound professional judgement

To provide opportunity for participants to show their understanding of the assessment and moderation process

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Resounding message from session 3

To better support learning, we need to be clear about the learning purpose and the uses to which assessment information will be put.

(Stobart, 2009)

VALIDITY and RELIABILITY

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Assessmentdifferent uses – different emphases

Formative (assessment for learning)

To help learners progress in their ongoing learning by:

helping them make sense of the curriculum and teaching

providing feedback for improvement

developing learners’ capacity for critical thinking

involving learners in decisions and engaging them fully in the learning process

Summative(assessment of learning)

To summarise learning periodically in order to:

allocate pupils to ‘sets’inform course choicereport to parents pass on information at

transitionsaccredit learning (e.g. though

national qualifications)provide an account of

performance for senior managers

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Quality assurance and moderation – an example

Consider the range of evidence provided for Learner A:

is the assessment evidence VALID in terms of the learning identified?

does the evidence meet the criteria specified? are you able to judge from the feedback whether

or not the example contains evidence of breadth, challenge or application in other contexts?

What feedback should be provided for the teacher - how might the opportunities for learning and assessment be improved?

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VALIDITYof assessment in CfE

Before learning and teaching takes place, sharing and agreeing:

the suitability of the Es & Os selected our understanding the learning intended the experiences planned to develop the

learning, or the task proposed the nature of evidence which might be

gathered the criteria we plan to use to evaluate learning

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RELIABILITY of professional judgements in CfE

After learning and teaching, agreeing: whether or not the combined evidence meets

the criteria already agreed and achieves the standard expected

what these responses reveal about pupils’ learning and progress – how much and how well

an overall judgement in terms of breadth, challenge and application in other contexts

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What does a good assessment look like?

A good example of assessment will include: shared expectations through discussion of curriculum

experiences and outcomes agreement that assessment methods are fit for gathering

information about the intended learning (say, write, make, do)

an explanation of what colleagues expect progress in learning to look like

a review of how colleagues have discussed and evaluated evidence, in relation to learning objectives and criteria for success

a record of the outcome of discussion – i.e. what the evidence reveals - using a shared vocabulary

agreement on strengths and next steps for pupils, and for teachers in a culture of self-evaluation for improvement.

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Towards VALIDITY

Refer to plans compiled for AM Circles and the evidence from pupils’ classwork

Follow the prompts on the front page, considering the planned opportunities for learning

Provide feedback for the teacherUse the prompts on the next three pages to:

discuss what the evidence reveals about each pupils’ learning

agree the annotations you wish to include for each learner.

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Towards RELIABILITY

Using the prompts on each of the next three pages:discuss what the evidence reveals about

each pupils’ learning and progressionmake a note of your decisioncheck this against the feedback providednote any areas of disagreement on the front

page, if appropriate.

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Sharing our understanding

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Concluding reflections

As a result of involvement in ‘AM Circles’:What do your colleagues find most challenging?

How can you support your colleagues?

What support would help you to help them?

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References - intelligent accountability

O ’Neill, O. (2002) 'Called to account: a question of trust', BBC Reith Lecture 3 from www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/reith2002

Mansell, W., James, M. & the Assessment Reform Group (2009) Assesmsent in schools. Fit for purpose? A Commentary by the Teaching and Learning Research Programme (TLRP)

Wiliam, D. (2001) ‘What is wrong with our educational assessments and what can be done about it’ from http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.130.3354&rep=rep1&type=pdf

Social moderation ensures rigour. It is not a soft option!

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