Updated: Mar 2000 | Assessment - Classroom Approaches | Using a Variety of Evidence

Assessment - Using a Variety of Evidence

Judgements should be based on information that fully encompasses the outcome and includes situations that authentically represent the ways in which the outcome will need to be used in the future. Curriculum Framework, (1998), p.37

Because of the complexity of outcomes and the diversity of students' needs, a range of assessment techniques and strategies is required to provide sufficient valid information for teachers to make on-balance judgements. Assessments will, in many instances, be ongoing and part of the planned learning experiences.

Performance assessment is the assessment of students as they engage in an activity. For this reason, it has particular importance as a method of assessment in an outcomes-focused approach to curriculum. It can be used in assessing activities in all learning areas. It favours experiential learning and, for that reason, it has important implications for programs that focus on practical activities.

Forster and Masters (1996) show that it is useful to think about performance assessment along a purpose continuum, with informal classroom formative and diagnostic assessment at one end and formal 'high-stakes' summative assessment at the other.

They suggest that: The way in which these different kinds of performance assessments are planned, the way in which student performances are judged, and the way in which the resulting evidence is used to infer students' location on a progress map [a standards framework] depend on the context and purpose of the assessment.

Assessment information should provide accurate estimations of student performance. The information should be both valid (because the purpose of the assessment is tied to the type of assessment used) and reliable (because the information gathered is consistent across time and circumstances).

Teachers who review their assessment practices become more reflective about their curriculum planning, instructional strategies, and methods of reporting students' progress accurately to parents.

Some specific types of assessment are documented to focus teachers' reflections and discussions about their practices. Decisions need to be made by teachers about how they use the methods formatively or summatively, formally or informally, and whether a particular method provides valid and reliable information about outcomes demonstrated.

The assessment methods discussed in this document provide examples, and should not be treated as an exhaustive list.