Member Benefits Booklet

As a member you are entitled to a wide variety of exclusive assessment-related benefits. This short guide gives you an update on our Royal Charter and shows you how to access the member benefits available to you via the Institute's website, www.ioea.org.uk.

Royal Charter update

The IEA was granted a Royal Charter in the summer of 2007, which means Chartered Educational Assessor (CEA) status can be granted to eligible members in 2008. A successful pilot training scheme was held in late 2007 and regular updates feature on our website. The Royal Charter means the organisation will formally be known as the Chartered Institute of Educational Assessors (CIEA). Chartered status brings the organisation into line with other respected professions (e.g. Chartered Institute of Management Accountants) and enables members to achieve the highest individual professional designation available in educational assessment - Chartered Educational Assesssor status. If you are a voting member of the Institute (i.e. if you have achieved Associate, Member or Fellow status) you are now eligible to use the following post-nominals after your name:

• FIEA for Fellows
• MIEA for Members
• AIEA for Associate Members

From May 2008 the implementation of the Royal Charter will mean that post-nominals will change to:

• FCIEA for Fellows
• MCIEA for Members
• ACIEA for Associate Members

Further information will be communicated via our monthly e-newsletter, IEAMAIL

The IEA website

Our website contains a vast amount of assessment-related information, advice and useful

resources that can be accessed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

To access most member benefits you will need to login to the Member area of the website. If you require further information relating to activating your online profile or login please refer to p8.

Membership Information

This section enables you to:

• Find out what exclusive member benefits are available to you
• Understand the membership fee structure that will be introduced in May 08 (see also p10)
• Upgrade to Associate, Member or Fellow grade (if eligible)
• Promote membership to your friends/colleagues via interactive membership brochures (available in both English and Welsh)
• Review some frequently asked questions

If you are eligible to upgrade your membership status you should do it online. It is much quicker than submitting a hard copy application and will be processed more quickly by us. Please visit www.ioea.org.uk/upgrade and login to your online profile (information on how to activate this is included on p8).

Continuing Professional Development

This section of the website enables you to identify your own continuing professional development (CPD) pathway - based on the skills and abilities needed for good assessment practice and develop your learning in by utilising assessment tools and techniques.

You will be able to assess your existing skills in assessment by using a range of easy to access tools and the IEA Professional Framework.

The Framework will take you through the processes involved in assessment in different tiers of responsibility, from classroom assessor to senior external examiner. You will be able to drill into and navigate across different assessment roles to check your existing skills, knowledge and competencies. You will also be able to use the Framework to understand other assessment roles and use this as a tool to improve your own assessment skills.

Additionally, should you find there are gaps in your assessment skills you will be able to address these by using the IEA's assessor compendia, which are also located in this area of the website.

These assessor compendia, which are compiled and updated on a regular basis by senior educational assessors, contain a wide range of advice and guidance on how to carry out good assessment practice with useful links to external resources.

Coming Soon - New Professional Frameworks and Compendia including:

• A formative assessment version of the IEA Professional Framework
• A formative assessment-related compendium
• A summative assessment related compendium

Consider taking the online tour of the professional framework as it introduces the framework via an interactive sound and visual demonstration. You can access this on the main IEA Professional Framework web page where a link to the tour can be found.

Knowledge Centre

The IEA Knowledge Centre houses a wealth of online assessment-specific information, research and resources including:

Interactive Toolkit for Assessors
The new Toolkit for Assessors allows you to assess your own marking against an agreed set of marks. You can choose from English, maths or science at Key Stage 3 and we plan to develop other toolkits in the near future. You will be able to view a variety of candidate's responses to questions in a National Curriculum Test. Beside each of the candidate responses to a question, will be the relevant mark scheme for that question. For each question, enter the mark you would allocate to the candidate response, using the drop down menu and choosing a score you deem appropriate. Once you have done this, click the "Enter Mark" button. The agreed, standardised score will be displayed, along with the mark that you awarded. In some of the questions that require an explanation, there are also comments by the chief marker, explaining why the marks have been awarded.

This toolkit will also allow anyone who has to process access arrangements for National Curriculum Tests to practise interpreting the evidence as it is presented in a case study:
one for Key Stage 2 and a separate one for Key Stage 3.

A number of alternatives are presented to you. Choose the access arrangement for which you would apply and then state which evidence you would submit in support of the application. First choose the appropriate Key Stage. You will be given some background information relating to a particular candidate. You will also be given some results relating to that candidate's test scores in some standard diagnostic tests. Read this information. Following this, you will be asked whether or not you apply for a particular arrangement for the candidate and you will be asked to specify your reasoning. Choose the answer from a list of five and click the radio button.

You will then receive a response which highlights the response that you have given as well as the response from a Special Educational Needs (SEN) expert.

IEA Research Database Powered by EBSCO

The IEA Research Database, powered by EBSCO (a powerful online database normally available only to assessors working within large educational institutions), enables free and unlimited access to more than 3000 abstracted and indexed journals including:

• Assessment Journal
• Assessment Update
• Educational Assessment Journal
• Assessment in Education: Principles, Policies and Practice
• Journal of Assessment, Chronicle of Higher Education
• Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education
• Education Leadership
• Journal of Education
• Journal of Higher Education
• Journal of Learning

The database is particularly useful if you wish to keep up-to-date with the latest developments in assessment or require access to recent assessment research findings and reports. This service also includes functionality to build up links to a collection of material in a saved search in order to pursue a particular issue.

Make the Grade Magazine & E-Newsletter Archives

Your termly magazine that will keep you up to date with the latest assessment-related developments and news, as well as providing you with practical help and advice

The termly publication, Make the Grade , contains articles of a practical nature that will help to inform good practice. Recently, Paul Black, John Gardner and Patricia Broadfoot have all contributed articles in the magazine, offering clear guidance about how to improve ssessment practice within schools and colleges. A magazine archive is available in the Knowledge Centre section of the IEA website for members.

An archive of our monthly e-newsletter, IEAMail, can also be found in this section of the website. IEAMAIL is our monthly e-newsletter that contains bite-sized articles that relate to the most recent activity within the assessment community - both in the UK and overseas.

Because items are bite-sized you can quickly scan through each issue. A helpful menu of articles appears at the top of each issue, so that you can locate information relevant to you.

A very useful feature of IEAMAIL is the direct link it provides to the source of the article or news item.

Articles and Audio Podcasts

A number of assessment-related articles and podcasts (or Insights as we call them) are available for you to download in this section of the website. Topics include arrangements in examinations, coursework and teacher assessments to the Tomlinson review and more.

Designing an Assessment Policy There is an easy to follow step by step guide to constructing and writing a school or college's assessment policy. You can also use the step by step guide to check your existing assessment policy.

Publisher and resource provider discounts

A wide range of exclusive assessment-related discounts have been negotiated in order

for you to save money.

• £17 off on an annual subscription to the TES
• Testbase, Turnitin and other assessment material offers
• Harcourt, Harcourt Assessment and Routledge publication discounts
• Various discounts on assessment-related data tracking software

Campaigns and Activities

Online Monthly Polls The IEA conducts an assessment-related monthly poll in which you can take part. Questions feature in this section of the website as well as in the monthly member e-newsletter.

Attitudinal Research

Discover what your fellow assessors think about educational assessment via research carried out by the Institute. Topics range from preparing assessments to the role of the Institute.

Member Area

This section of the website is exclusively for the use of members. It contains a wealth of assessment information and resources including:

• Assessment related online discussion forums
• Regional and national online discussion forums
• Member consultations Accessing the Member area

Access to the Member area is via a username and password. To retrieve your username and password visit www.ioea.org.uk/activate and submit the following information:

• Membership number
• Date of birth
• Email address

After successfully registering for the Member area you will be sent a user name and password. When you log in for the first time you will also be asked to agree to the terms and conditions of the website as well as confirm your personal details. The Member area login screen can be found in the top right side of the screen on most web pages. Once logged in you will also be able to:

See your membership grade, membership number and IEA region

• Add/edit your personal details
• Change your password
• Add/edit your assessment related interest areas

If you have any questions relating to Member area access please email info@ioea.org.uk

News and Events

This section of the website will keep you up to date with the latest Institute developments and news from the wider assessment community.

You can access:

• Information on our annual conference, the IEA National Assessment Conference. The 2008 Conference will take place on 23rd and 24th April at the Novotel London St. Pancras.
  See this section of the website for further information.
• IEA Press Releases
• In the news - Up to the minute assessment-related news stories
• Events listings
• Past events information including lecture slides and notes, as well as the documents of proceedings and videos presentations from the events themselves.

Student Member Area

The website contains a dedicated area for PGCE, B.Ed students and Newly Qualified Teachers (NQTs).

First Steps in Assessment
This material covers the basics of assessment for NQTs in primary and secondary schools. Written in a chatty, readable style, it draws on the experience of NQTs and longserving teachers to explain what you need to know to get started

Newly Qualified Teacher Assessment Guide
The IEA has developed a new NQT brochure that summarises information about the IEA, as well as the benefits of joining. If you would like to receive a small stock of these brochures to distribute to NQTs working within your school/college please email info@ioea.org.uk stating your name, address and quantity required.

Research
This section links to the IEA Research Database, also located within the Knowledge Centre section of the website.

Services
This section gives information on finding a job vacancy within the assessment world.

Contacts
The IEA has compiled a list of contacts and hyperlinks to useful websites that will be of use from an educational perspective. If you are studying towards your PGCE or B.Ed the IEA is more than happy to deliver an assessment related seminar/workshop. If this idea interests you please email the name and email address of your tutor to info@ioea.org.uk

Membership Fees
The following membership fees will be implemented from May 2008:

• Student - £15
• Affiliate - £25
• Associate - £40
• Member - £50
• Fellow - £70

Membership fees will be charged on a rolling annual basis. CIEA is an independent charitable professional body supporting good assessment practice.