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Assessment principles

and practices - Quality assessments in a digital age

Table of contents

Table of contents5

Foreword5

Why read this document?8

Using this resource - different routes through the document9

Introduction and overview of this resource.................................................................................................21

Introduction21

What are assessment principles and practices?21

Which IB programmes does it cover?22

Who is this resource for?23

What does the tag line "quality assessment in a digital age" mean?23 How does this resource relate to other IB resources and guides?24

Assessment using technology28

Language of assessment33

Emerging terms for eAssessment35

Section A - Principles of Assessment.....................................................................................................................39

What is assessment about?39

Fit for purpose? Validity46

Elements of the validity chain55

Defining standards73

Describing success - candidate achievement for summative assessment79

Marking assessments82

What is a good assessment?90

IB's principles of assessment106

Section B - IB assessment practices.....................................................................................................................108

What do we mean by a practice?108

Reporting candidate achievement108

Roles and responsibilities114

Integrity of the assessment120

Fairness for all - meeting candidates' needs125

The assessment cycle131

Examination paper preparation - development and quality135

Examinations142

Standard setting - Preparing examiners for marking147

Marking153

Moderation164

Grade awarding (and aggregation)174

"At risk" based quality checks191

The final award committee193

Preparation for release of results194

Enquiries upon results (EUR), appeals and general feedback197

Setting next year's assessments203

Feedback to schools207

Section C - IB programme-specific processes.......................................................................................211

What are programme-specific processes?211

Elements common to all programmes213

IB Diploma Programme216

IB Career-related Programme225

IB Middle Years Programme229

IB Primary Years Programme235

Moderation of internal assessment237

Roadmap for creating a validity argument243

Bibliography247

Glossary252

Assessment principles and practices - Quality assessments in a digital age

Overview

Table of contents

This resource has been designed to have many routes through, depending on the interests and needs

of the reader. The following table of contents is intended only as a reference list of all the chapters

rather than a suggested order in which they should be read. We would encourage you to start with the chapter on Using this resource, to understand how to navigate to the sections which are most important to you.

Foreword

"Everything that can be counted does not necessarily count; everything that counts cannot necessarily be counted. - (Albert Einstein/William Cameron 1963) "Clearly, if the other criteria are less reliable than the examinations, greater reliance on them will lead to less reliable selection decisions. - (Mike Cresswell 1986) These two quotes indicate the scope of the challenge that we face with assessment. Many of the objectives for an International Baccalaureate (IB) education are not easy to assess, but without

detailed assessments of our learners, important decisions that will affect their lives will be made on

less fair and reliable grounds. IB programmes are taught in over 140 countries by schools representing a wide variety of educational contexts and traditions. In some of these contexts, the philosophy and approaches adopted by the IB

in assessing their students will seem familiar, while to others, the system might seem mysterious and

obscure. In this document, we are seeking to explain the principles the IB has adopted to make sure that the assessment we undertake is meaningful, fair and in the best interest of the students involved. 5 Assessment principles and practices - Quality assessments in a digital age

Overview

Such clarity is even more important during a period of change, and the impact of technology on education, including assessment, will continue to be felt over the next decade. We strongly believe that technology should support assessment and the move towards computerized on-screen examinations will not change our principles; but it may open up new possibilities in turning these principles into practices. More details on this can be found in the chapter on Assessment using technology. We believe that it is important that everyone in the IB community understands how our external assessment process works, what its strengths and limitations are, and the reasons why decisions are

taken. Increased transparency can only lead to better understanding and ultimately a better education

for our students. By using the opportunities offered by on-screen resources, we hope to provide

teachers with a clear guide that is accessible but also contains the depth of information they need to

understand IB assessment.

Figure 1: All assessments are a balance

6 Assessment principles and practices - Quality assessments in a digital age

Overview

All assessments are a balance between conflicting demands and many concerns about testing processes fail to take this into account. An example might be the tension between reducing the assessments burden and the risk of candidates only having one opportunity to show what they can do. For more information on this see the section on validity.

Need to balance between conflicting priorities

Another aspect of balance is the fact that the focus of the IB is to develop students through a holistic

programme of study, and we must reflect this in our approach to assessment. This means we should make decisions about the impact on the overall programme, not a narrow focus on one subject, discipline or assessment. In order to understand the nature of the IB assessment philosophy and operation, it is necessary to provide some background on the historical and theoretical development of assessment practice. Many significant issues are only briefly touched upon, but it is important to highlight them as they have a significant impact on current practice. For readers who wish to find out more, the academic papers quoted in the text will make a suitable starting point for further investigation.

We started by recognizing the difficult task the IB sets itself; to focus on what is important to assess

and not what is easy. This is perhaps most eloquently expressed by Alec Peterson, the first Director

General of the IB:

"What is needed is a process of assessment which is as valid as possible, in the sense that it really assesses the whole endowment and personality of the pupil in relation to the next stage of his life, but at the same time sufficiently reliable to assure pupils, parents, teachers, and receiving institutions that justice is being done. Yet such a process must not, by its backwash effect, distort good teaching, nor be too slow, nor absorb too much of our scarce educational resources. - (Peterson 1971) We hope the rest of this resource explains how we believe we can deliver on this challenging

objective and support the wider educational intentions of the International Baccalaureate in providing

7 Assessment principles and practices - Quality assessments in a digital age

Overview

a world class experience for its students. If you have further queries which are beyond the scope of this resource please contact IB assessment staff, by emailing assessment@ibo.org.

Why read this document?

Because assessment results have an impact on students' lives The majority of the content of this document refers to the way in which the IB assesses candidates to award Diploma Programme (DP), Career-related Programme (CP) and the optional Middle Years Programme (MYP) outcomes, which are then used by students to progress into further education or work. Like everything else, assessment is only a tool which can lead to positive or negative outcomes for those being evaluated with them. As a teacher, parent or student, you are involved in assessments and should understand the strengths, weaknesses and decisions that those offering and using assessment need to make. Below are some of the common questions and comments we receive from teachers and how this document will help answer them. "Why would the IB do that?" This is the heartfelt question that we often hear from teachers and students when faced with external assessment. By reading this document you should understand the principles that drive our assessment practices. "It's not fair sir, I needed a higher grade!" For students, a great deal will depend on their examination results, such as university entrance and future career; and they need to understand why decisions are made. Assessment is all about balancing conflicting and competing demands and this document will help you to explain to students the wider implications of bending the rules in their case, and maybe even convince them that their grade was "fair". "I had not thought about it like that before." 8 Assessment principles and practices - Quality assessments in a digital age

Overview

Even for teachers who have worked in education for many years, external assessment can often seem a mysterious and opaque process. No part of an education, particularly an IB education, should be "done to" someone, and so we need to be able to explain to students how and why they receive the results they have. "I only want to use assessments to inform better teaching." An understanding of what makes good assessment, and what decisions need to be made, is important even if you are intending to use assessment for formative purposes. Poor quality assessments will

lead to poor quality outcomes, and this is equally true if the outcome is to support learning or some

other internal school purpose as if it is intended for selection or formal recognition. This document

will help understand how the IB meets its objectives to provide high quality assessment to support its

educational goals. Using this resource - different routes through the document

•The range of topics in Assessment principles and practices is so that it is helpful to provide a

framework to guide readers to sections which are of particular interest to them.

•The topic questions below can act as a starting point for learning about those aspects that are most

important to the reader.

What are these topic questions?

Assessment principles and practice is intended as a comprehensive overview of the way that the IB approaches assessment. Many teachers will not want this breadth and are looking for specific

information about part of the process. To help do this we have prepared a number of separate lists of

sections which concentrate on particular questions that teachers may have. What difference will on-screen assessment make to IB assessment? Intended for teachers who are familiar with IB assessment but are interested in how the IB will handle them, move to on-screen assessments.

Typical questions include:

9 Assessment principles and practices - Quality assessments in a digital age

Overview

•What is on-screen assessment? •Will it be marked by computer? •Why will it be better? •Will it be the same standard? A list of sections that are likely to be of particular interest to you can be found here.

Assessment using technology

What does on-screen assessment look like?

Risks with on-screen assessment to avoid

Language of assessment

What are the key terms to understand?

Difference between a candidate and student

Assessments, examinations, tests and components

Marking and grading

Difference between a question, and an item

Paper author and examiners

Emerging terms for eAssessment _Emerging_terms_for

On-screen assessment

Response file and candidate response

Familiarization tool

Unsure what a term means?

What is a good assessment?

10 Assessment principles and practices - Quality assessments in a digital age

Overview

What does good on-screen assessment look like?

The assessment cycle

Impact of eAssessment on the assessment cycle

Moving to an on-screen assessment

On-screen assessments

How are assessments marked and grades awarded?

An explanation to teachers on what goes on once they send the candidates' work to the IB for marking and how grades are produced.

Typical questions include:

•Why are there different grade boundaries this year? •Why can't I have a different examiner? •Who marks the scripts? •How are the examiners checked? •How can I appeal? •I would have given the mark to the candidate - why is this fair? •The markscheme indicates that the candidate's answer is worth a mark - how can this be fair? •Isn't a "grade-free classroom" the best approach for students? A list of sections that are likely to be of particular interest to you can be found here.

Language of assessment

What are the key terms to understand?

Difference between a candidate and student

Assessments, examinations, tests and components

11 Assessment principles and practices - Quality assessments in a digital age

Overview

Marking and grading

Difference between a question, and an item

Reporting candidate achievement

What do IB grades mean?

What is the difference between marks and grades?

The tyranny of grades - lesser of two evils

What is a successful examination session?

Achievement is more than just grades

Roles and responsibilities

Chief Examiner and Principal Examiner

Other examiner roles

The responsibility of IB staff

Examiner hierarchy

Elements of the validity chain

Standard setting#Preparing examiners for marking

Standardization meeting

Practice scripts

Qualification scripts

Seed scripts

Tolerances

Successful standard setting

12 Assessment principles and practices - Quality assessments in a digital age

Overview

Marking

What is marking#consistent examiner judgement

"Definite marks"

Marks and grades are not the same thing

(Basic principles of) on-screen marking

Different types of mark schemes

Analytic markschemes

Holistic criteria#markbands

Additional support for examiners

Question item groups (QIG)

Quality model

Practice scripts

Qualification scripts

Seed scripts

Tolerances

Challenging and unusual scripts

School connects

Aggregation

Grade awarding (and aggregation)

What is grade awarding?

Judgmental and interpolated grade boundaries

13 Assessment principles and practices - Quality assessments in a digital age

Overview

Impact of eAssessment on grade award

Evidence used in grade award

Considering this year's cohort

Feedback on the assessment

Reviewing script evidence

Reviewing statistics on outcomes

Balancing the evidence

Grade descriptors

Fixed grade boundaries

Aggregation

Quality checks on grade awards and distribution reports

Awarding a programme certificate

Teacher observers

Principles of grade award

"At risk" based quality checks

What is the IB's approach to assessment?

For university admissions staff, teachers and stakeholders who are interested in the more theoretical underpinnings of the IB assessments; how we define good quality assessments, what directs our decision making in setting processes and how we balance the conflicting demands of assessment.

Typical questions include:

14 Assessment principles and practices - Quality assessments in a digital age

Overview

•What is IB assessment all about, what makes it special? A list of sections that are likely to be of particular interest to you can be found here.

What is assessment about?

What is "assessment?"

Formative, summative and assessment as learning - why are we doing assessment?

Backwash effect and learning

Marks and grades are not the same thing

Fit for purpose? Validity

What does validity mean?

What is valid? Assessment or use

Creating a validity argument

Maintaining validity

Benefits of on-screen to validity? Benefits of eAssessment to validity?

Elements of the validity chain

Balancing aspects of validity

Reliability

Consistent outcomes are not the same as the right outcome

Construct relevance and authenticity

Manageability

Fairness and bias

15 Assessment principles and practices - Quality assessments in a digital age

Overview

Comparability

IB's approach to validity

Defining standards

Three meanings of standards

Norm-referencing and criterion-referencing of performance standardsquotesdbs_dbs22.pdfusesText_28

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