Four Pillars of Assessment: Validity (2)

Validity is perhaps the most commonly-used word in discussions about the quality of any assessment. While it’s used a lot, it is often misunderstood and can be very misleading.

Validity is a word which, in assessment, refers to two things:

• The ability of the assessment to test what it intends to measure;
• The ability of the assessment to provide information which is both valuable and appropriate for the intended purpose.

A common misconception about validity is that it is a property of an assessment, but in reality, there is no such thing as ‘a valid assessment’. However, there is such a thing as ‘an assessment which is valid for a specific purpose’: validity is all about the inferences you make based on the information generated.

Read more at https://evidencebased.education/pillars-assessment-purpose-validity/

Four Pillars of Assessment: Purpose (1)

The first in a 4-part series of blogs here from Evidence Based Education on Assessment. They argue that to effectively use assessment in school, we need to be sure that the assessment itself fits the purpose that it is going to be used for. i.e., if we want to show progress on a particular topic, are our assessments robust enough to see if this has happened?

"What sorts of assessments do you use in schools? Whether they are external standardised assessments, home-grown tests, or past papers, is everyone clear about what their intended purpose is and how the information from them will be used? Are they fit for their intended purpose, or have they been warped over time – bent out of shape to fit a need in school? Or perhaps they’re done because … well… “we’ve always done them”!

Make sure the most is made of your time on assessment with appropriate, dependable measures to make appropriate, dependable claims and judgements."

https://evidencebased.education/pillars-assessment-purpose/

Rethinking Boys’ Engagement

An interesting post here on boys' engagement, debunking some myths and moving away from the assumptions about competition and real-world relevance of content. What it suggests as good practice is equally applicable to girls too.

What this Head of English found worked well:

1. Quality feedback that encouraged lots of repetitive practice in their areas of weakness
2. Positive relationships based on effective behaviour management
3. Really high expectations for all pupils

This is expanded upon in the full blog post which is worth a read:

https://markrobertsteach.wordpress.com/2017/07/03/rethinking-boys-engagement-my-talk-from-tllleeds17/