1. EDU704 – Assessment and Evaluation
National curriculum assessment and reporting policy and Fiji Islands assessment framework
Week 4
Lecture
Acknowledgement :Satish P. Chand

3. Pillar 9 - Making Fiji a Knowledge-based Society
The Way Forward:
Ensure access to quality education for all.
Establish a modular system of education.
Establish a coherent national tertiary education system.
Increase access to tertiary and higher education.
Ensure improved overall quality of teaching and learning through better trained educators.
Implement a progressive and responsive curriculum.

4. Policy in national curriculum assessment and reporting
This policy provides the overall authority and guidance for curriculum assessment and reporting policies and practices developed to be performed at the classroom, school and system level.

5. Policy in national curriculum assessment and reporting
Curriculum Assessment and Reporting is a complex mix of procedures and strategies designed for school and class level by the system to satisfy a number of purposes. The purpose for assessing children and students’ achievements and competencies are to:
inform and to improve students’ learning and development;
inform decision making in order to improve teaching and learning methods;
diagnose and improve students’ performances from year 3 to year 10 level
provide certification as a consequence of external examinations at the FY12 and FY13 Examination levels after ranking and selecting those students for tertiary education and those for technical education and others for the world of work.

6. Fiji Islands Assessment Framework
Source: Fiji - POLICY IN NATIONAL CURRICULUM ASSESSMENT AND REPORTING

7. Assessment and decision making
Teachers will:
use information gathered from formal and informal classroom based assessment to evaluate and plan strategies to improve teaching and learning practices;
inform decision made about the progress of students within and between classes level and school assessment and reporting practices.

8. Guidelines Develop valid and reliable assessments
Use a comprehensive range of assessments to make informed judgments about student achievement and progress over time
Assessments will be designed to be equitable for all students and appropriate for their phase of development
Criteria for assessments are explicit to children/ students being assessed

9. Guidelines
Engage in moderation to enhance the confidence and consistency of teacher progress judgments of student achievement and over time
Report regular and relevant information to parents or guardians on student progress and achievement
Use information from assessments to guide decision-making

10. The Roles of the Teacher in Assessment
Assessment design involves the teacher making decisions about how best to determine student progress and achievement of an outcome using a range of assessments over time. Teachers can adopt a range of strategies to gather information, interpret information, record information and communicate this information to stakeholders.

11. The Roles of the Teacher in Assessment.
Design assessments to gather information about student learning.
Questioning, observing, testing, assignments, quizzes, worksheets,
Interpret Information from assessments about student progress and achievement.
Checklists, rubrics, common grading scale, professional judgments
Record evidence of student learning and record keeping.
Anecdotal Records, marks book, portfolios
Communication student progress and achievement.
Parent- teacher conferences, summative reports, records of achievement, ongoing parent contact.

12. Eight Assessment Design Questions
Question 1: WHY is this assessment been done and what is the main purpose? Is the assessment for summative or formative purposes or a combination or is it for revision or to motivate students? Question 2: WHEN will be the best time to conduct this assessment? Should the assessment be administered before learning begins for diagnostic purposes, during learning, after learning, regularly, continuously, in class, at home and so on? Question 3: What content outcomes are being assessed? Is only one content outcome being assessed or are a number of outcomes been assessed at the same time? Question 4: WHO is the assessor and who else is a stakeholder? The assessor may be you the teacher, and external authority such as the ministry, a group of teachers, students peers or student self-assessment?

13. Eight Assessment Design Questions
Question 5: HOW should I design the assessment? What processes or tools do I need to use? Does the assessment need to be formal or can it be informal? What method will be used? A performance, an oral presentation, a checklist, Open- ended questions, a speed and accuracy test, a formal test, a problem-solving activity etc
Question 6: HOW do I make consistent judgments on student learning? Do I use marking criteria, do I design the task with other teachers? Do I engage in moderation for consensus activity?
Question 7: HOW do I communicate the judgments? To whom do I communicate judgment information? What do I communicate? How do I record the information? What does the student need to know? What do parents need to know?
Question 8: HOW can I use this information to improve learning?

14. Assessment Design Elements for quality assessment task.
Credibility – is the task valid, reliable, fair and coherent with the outcomes of the syllabus?
Intellectual Challenge – does the task challenge creative and critical thinking, draw in sufficient depth and breadth upon the targeted knowledge, concepts and skills, provide opportunities for students to demonstrate critical analysis, and have clear cognitive expectations?

15. Assessment Design Elements for quality assessment task.
Authenticity – does the task provide an appropriate and meaningful context for all students, is the task engaging and motivating, does the task have a genuine and valued purpose, and have a context that is appropriate for the cognitive demands?
User Friendliness – Is the task accessible for all students, is the language appropriate, and, are expectations clear?

16. Why internal assessment?
Every child has the capacity and ability to learn to a certain level of achievement
We assess what we value instead of valuing what we assess
Child learning is valued , then what the child is expected to learn will drive what is assessed.
Teaching and assessment are to be totally child centred so that no child is left behind.

17. IA strategies School based/ class based assessment (CBA)
Common assessment task (CAT)
IA projects
Quality assurance
Moderation
Achievement levels and benchmarks

18. Class-based assessment
There are two types of class based assessment:
Informal continuous Class-Based Assessment (less structured and more structured)
Formal continuous Class-Based Assessment.

19. Informal continuous class based assessments(less structured)
Means observing learners for assessment purposes and recording what we see. It occurs periodically either daily or on weekly basis.
Main purpose is to provide immediate feedback to students to improve.
eg: Teacher observation/Questioning/File Work

20. Informal continuous assessments-(more structured)
Means setting up assessment situations periodically.
Eg: ask a learner a question
Ask a learner to perform a task.
Observe learners in a group.
Ask a group of learners to perform a task.
Give small quizzes.

21. Types of formal Class-Based Assessment
Research assignment
Group activity
Poster
Chart/Diagram
Class Test
Essay
Creative Writing
Presentation
Writing letters
(More structured and not very frequent.
Generally planned by the teacher.
Students and parents are made aware prior to commencement.)

22. Types of formal Class-Based Assessment
Field trip reports
Journal writing
Compare and contrast
Oral presentation
Drawing
Play

23. Development of CBA Step 1
Select some achievement indicators/topics/subtopics of the unit learning outcome.
Step 2
Identify what you expect students to learn
Step 3a
List what you want to assess (concepts, skills) and state how (assessment activities) you are going to assess it with.

24. Development of CBA Step 3b
When deciding on suitable assessment activity (ies) consider the following questions:
-Why do I assess?
-What am I assessing?
-How can I ensure quality?
-For what purpose will I use the information?
Step 4
Design the assessment activity (ies) and recording template.

25. CBA Format Title of the Task Implementation timeline
Description of the Task
Purpose of the Task
Specific concepts and skills from the syllabus/prescription to be assessed
List of achievement indicators
Marking Criteria
Record sheet for marks or grades

26. What is moderation?
Moderation is the process where teachers compare judgments to either confirm or adjust them. (It is a process of eliminating or lessening extremes to ensure consistency and accuracy in the marking of students’ assessment)
The process involves close collaboration to establish a shared understanding of what achievement of an item looks like and whether or not the student has demonstrated achievement of the outcome.
Quality assurance and moderation:
is robust and rigorous and gives confidence in teachers' judgements.
provides the opportunity for teachers to collaborate and participate in professional dialogue and collegiate working.
ensures fairness to all children and young people and is open and transparent to all staff, parents and learners.
is fit for purpose and proportionate with processes articulating across stages and sectors
fosters mutual trust, openness to different ideas and respect for the different skills, experience and understanding that all participants bring.
ensures that learning, teaching and assessment is planned in a coherent way and that assessment is valid and reliable.
provides opportunities for feedback and planning for improvement.
is manageable and the methods used are accessible and easily arranged with ongoing professional dialogue as a key component.
promotes learner engagement through learners discussing criteria, sharing and reviewing samples of their work and identifying strategies they found helpful to their learning.
promotes capacity building of assessment expertise, professional learning and development and quality improvement as integral to quality assurance processes.
Moderation is the term used to describe approaches for arriving at a shared understanding of standards and expectations for the broad general education. It involves teachers and other professionals as appropriate, working together, drawing on guidance and exemplification and building on existing standards and expectations to:
plan learning, teaching and assessment
check that assessment tasks and activities provide learners with fair and valid opportunities to meet the standards and expectations before assessments are used
sample evidence from learners' work and review teachers' judgements
agree strengths in learners' performances and next steps in learning
provide feedback on teachers' judgements to inform improvements in practices
Moderation helps to raise standards and expectations and levels of consistency across teachers and schools. This ensures that there is an appropriate focus on outcomes for learners, that learning is at the appropriate level and that learners develop the skills for learning, skills for life and skills for work, including higher order thinking skills, which will allow them to be successful in the future.
Teachers being involved in developing their assessment approaches through participation in moderation activities is a highly effective form of professional development.

27. Functions of moderation
To verify that assessment across all subjects is fair, valid, reliable and practicable.
To ensure that learners doing the same subject but in different forms are treated equitably
To validate the authenticity of the learners work.
To identify the need to redesign assessments.
To evaluate and provide appropriate and necessary support, advice and guidance to assessors.

28. Quote for the week
“Intelligence plus character-that is the goal of true education.” Martin Luther King Jr