The Future Of Assessment

1. Introduction

Assessment happens all the time. It is something that we as individuals do all the time and perhaps without noticing.

By coming here today you have all made an assessment that it may be worth your while. At the end of the day you will make an assessment about how the day developed, what you got out of it and whether or not we did in fact make it worth your while.

But we make other more mundane assessments. We make an assessment of where to spend our money. We make an assessment of what we spend it on. We make assessments about the type of holidays we go on, with whom and where.

Recently, in the Flora London Marathon, in which I hasten to add, I did not take part, individuals were assessed by the speed in which they travelled the distance. The person who covered the distance in the fastest time was declared the winner, as a female athlete, a male athlete or a disabled athlete. Many people set off on that marathon journey knowing that they would not, could not win. However, they still took part in it; many of them raising millions of pounds for charity in the process. Yet how are we to assess their progress? How are we to assess their participation?

Certainly they achieved something out of it: a sense of worth; a sense of achievement; a sense of doing something for others less fortunate than themselves.

However, what drove them to take part in this enormous effort to cover 26.4 miles, sometimes carrying strange objects like a suit of armour and towing a dragon?

Against what criteria do we make an assessment of the worth of their participation? Is our judgement of their efforts valid? Is the judgement we are making fit for purpose? Are our assessments fair and equitable? Do we judge different people by different criteria? Do we judge the elite athletes say against the fun runners and apply the same criteria? Are our assessments consistent?

Here we begin to look at the heart of what assessment is, how it is used and what the outcomes may be.

The White Paper, published last year and making its way through the House makes a number of references to reforms that will need to be assessed and will impact upon all of us as assessment professionals.

2. The Reforms

These reforms include:

2.1. Functional skills

These qualifications will enable learners to develop basic 'functional' levels of skills in English, Maths & ICT, in preparation for the workinglife.

• They will improve and develop personal, employability, learning and thinking skills.
• They will ensure young people and adults have sufficient communication, numeracy and ICT skills to engage in life and work.
• They may be developed as stand alone qualifications as well as being incorporated into GCSE English, maths and ICT

What impact could they have on assessment generally and assessors in particular?

• It is proposed that no one can achieve a 'C' or better without mastering the functional elements.
• There could be up to two million such tests per year, thereby increasing dramatically the number of tests nationally.
• A move to On-demand assessment? After all, it's a competency test.
• How this will be implemented still has to be worked out.
• Functional Skills could be taken in all age phases from KS3 upwards.

When will this happen?

• Sept 06: Trials
• Sept 07: Two-year English & ICT pilots begin (GCSE & standalone)
• Sept 07: Three-year Maths pilot begins (GCSE & standalone)
• Sept 08: FS available for the first teach of the Specialised Diplomas
• Sept 09: First availability of accredited qualifications

2.2. GCSEs and A levels

The changes can be summarised as follows:

• A reduction in coursework at GCSE
• Adding a General Diploma to assessment at KS4
• There is a proposal to reduce some A levels from six to four units
• There is a proposal to add AEA style questions to A level to "stretch" the most able
• Considering adding the extended project to A level courses to stretch the able and test a wider range of high level skills

What impact will this have on assessment and assessment policy?

• Will there need to be new rules of transition to allow the old A2 to be cashed in against the new A2?
• Will the AEA style questions require new rules of assessment?
• Will the Extended project require new rules of assessment?

When will this happen? It is intended that

• Sept 08: First teach of Extended Project
• Sept 08: First teach of revised GCEs
• Sept 09: First teach of revised GSCEs
• Aug 10: First award of new AEAs

2.3. The New Diploma

• A new qualification, recognising achievement at levels 1, 2 and 3 from ages 14-19. Its purpose is to:
  • Develop the knowledge and skills needed to progress into employment, training or FE/HE, but NOT to make the learner employment ready
  • Meet the skills needs of employers
  • Improve the quality and recognition of qualifications in applied subjects
• Level 1: comparable, in terms of average length of study, to a programme of 4-5 GCSEs
• Level 2: comparable to 5-6 GCSEs
• Level 3: comparable to 3 A LevelsThe Diploma may include a minimum of 10 days work experience at each level.

What impact will this have on assessment and assessors? For example, how will the work experience element be assessed? Will it be a written test? (I hope not!) What will be the criteria against which it is assessed? How will the public know that these assessments are valid? How will they have confidence in the outcomes?

Will there be new models of assessment to accompany these reforms?

Can we move towards an assessment system that will respond to reflect the needs of the learner rather than the requirements of the system? Can we, by providing assessments on line move towards a system that will be more responsive to the needs of the learners?

We must enshrine the principles of assessment into any new regime, but how will this impact upon your daily lives?

Whatever our answers may be, we must ensure that they reflect those principles.

The assessments must be based upon specific and explicit criteria. The assessments must be valid. The assessment regimes employed must be fit for purpose. The assessments must be fair and equitable. The assessments must be consistent over time

2.4. The introduction of KS 3 ICT

You may not already know that this will be a compulsory part of the KS3 National Curriculum Tests from 2008. Currently it is being offered as a pilot to help Schools come to terms with the demands of administering the tests on line, ensuring that the hardware in the school is able to download the material and manage the files.

The pilot will also allow schools to determine how they want to run the tests and manage their invigilation as well as their timetables. The assessment of the test takes place on-line and is a completely different experience for the candidate. It is less of an ordeal since it replicates normal working conditions. It also provides diagnostic feedback, informing the candidate and the teacher of strengths and weaknesses and pointing the way forward. Further, it tests different skills, analysing not simply what the candidate knows and can do, but importantly, how the candidate applies that knowledge.

Future tests will come from a bank of tests available to be used at any time, when the candidate is ready to be tested, not when the system is ready to test the candidate, in a more flexible way than at present.

2.5.Implications

Such an assessment system will require an agreed infrastructure for the exchange of data. It will require an agreed level of specification in hardware within each centre. It will require different types and levels of invigilation and security. It will require a bank of materials upon which to draw at any one time. It will require a safe and secure regime that will provide access arrangements to those who need them, fulfilling the requirements of the Disability Discrimination Act at the same time as fulfilling the requirements of the Data Protection Act. (This will shift the assessor's role to the front end of the process rather than the time restricted middle of the process.

Such a system will allow for test on demand and deliver the personalised curriculum envisaged by ministers.

The NAA has already begun the process of converging the separate and different processes employed by the Awarding Bodies. A system will be in place to deliver the Specialised Diploma by 2010, the first teach of this being in 2008. The Diploma will combine the unit scores offered by a range of Awarding Bodies into a single award for the candidate.

The data about each candidate's progress will need to be stored in a secure area. This will need to be flexible enough to allow the candidate to transfer to a different centre and take with him/her the achievements already gained. Clearly there will need to be a robust set of databases to store this amount of information. There will need to be a transactional system that will allow the different data bases to talk to each other and transfer appropriate data from one place to another. Again, the NAA has already begun the process of designing this system.

3. So what are the implications for Assessment and Assessors

Such a system will require assessment skills of the highest order. Many of you here today already possess such skills at the required standard. However, as you have no doubt realised, we need more people to work at the levels of the best of you.

Further, we need qualified assessors not only working for Awarding Bodies, but also operating within schools and colleges on a daily basis. Again, many of our teachers and lecturers already operate at a high level of skill as classroom assessors, but to ensure that the outcomes of the assessments that take place within our schools and colleges remain valid, we must be confident that these skills are a part of every teacher's skill set.

How we intend to do this our next speaker will explain.

Clearly there are changes on the way. We would like now to hear your views about the future. Let us use the EVS

• What was your awareness of the white paper reforms prior to this conference? Answer only one part of the question that applies to you
  • I have read the white paper in its entirety
  • I have read detailed articles in specialist newspapers, magazines or websites
  • I have read articles in general newspapers or websites
  • I have heard some information from discussions with colleagues
  • I haven't read or heard anything about it
• What do you anticipate will be the effect of the reforms on your working life?
  • Significant
  • Moderate
  • Little
  • None
  • Do not know enough to judge
• How prepared do you feel?
  • Very well prepared
  • Reasonably well prepared
  • Under-prepared
  • Not prepared at all
• What would help you in your preparation?
  • Formal training course outside school/centre
  • Formal training course within school/centre
  • Conference workshop or seminar
  • Information being made available on line
  • None of the above
• How do you feel about the new functional tests?
  • I welcome it as a positive initiative
  • I broadly approve but have some questions
  • It sounds like a good idea but I need to find out more
  • It sounds like a bad idea but I need to find out more
  • I have some serious reservations that need to be addressed
  • I totally disagree with the proposals
• How do you feel about the GCSE and A level reforms?
  • I welcome it as a positive initiative
  • I broadly approve but have some questions
  • It sounds like a bad idea but I need to find out more
  • I have some serious reservations that need to be addressed
  • I totally disagree with the proposals
• How do you feel about the new Diplomas?
  • I welcome it as a positive initiative
  • I broadly approve but have some questions
  • It sounds like a good idea but I need to find out more
  • It sounds like a bad idea but I need to find out more
  • I have some serious reservations that need to be addressed