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A M Circles: Session Four Sound Professional Judgements (Intelligent Accountability) North Lanarkshire Council January 2012

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

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

Assessment different 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 choice report to parents pass on information at transitions accredit learning (e.g. though national qualifications) provide an account of performance for senior managers

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?

VALIDITY of 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

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

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.

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 teacher Use 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.

Towards RELIABILITY Using the prompts on each of the next three pages: discuss what the evidence reveals about each pupils’ learning and progression make a note of your decision check this against the feedback provided note any areas of disagreement on the front page, if appropriate.

Sharing our understanding

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?

References - intelligent accountability O’Neill, O. (2002) 'Called to account: a question of trust', BBC Reith Lecture 3 from 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 ep=rep1&type=pdf Social moderation ensures rigour. It is not a soft option!