Assessment and Innovation Janet Looney European Institute of Education and Social Policy 13 November 2014 Eminent Conference, Zurich

An Overview: Three kinds of assessment Summative assessment –Teacher-developed tests –Large-scale standards-based tests –May be norm-referenced or criterion-referenced Formative assessment –Classroom-based dialogue, extended questioning, student projects –Feedback (timely, task-focused, includes suggestions for improvement) –Always criterion-referenced Ipsative assessment –Portfolios, tracking tools –Referenced to the individual student’s progress Each of these assessment methods gathers different kinds of information for different purposes, and on a different timeline

Large-scale, standards-based are useful for monitoring student and school performance, but a number of issues must be taken into consideration: Educational measurement technologies have not kept pace with advances in the cognitive sciences Results from large-scale assessments are usually delivered too late and with too little detail to have an impact on instruction High stakes assessments often lead to a narrowing of instruction, limit “open learning” They may undermine innovation in education Performance-based assessments measure higher order skills, but often have lower reliability

Improving assessment Develop summative assessment systems that Are based on multiple measures over time Support R&D for new approaches to assessment that provide a reliable measure of higher-order thinking Balance accountability/improvement roles Improve teacher capacity for formative assessment Place a greater emphasis on student self improvement and assessment of open learning

Different tools for different purposes Large-scale standardised tests ICT-based assessments of complex skills Test banks Comment-only feedback Student peer- and self-assessment Portfolios Rubrics Tracking tools focused on improvement

Thank you