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Assessments are a vital part of school life. There are many different types of assessments, they all happen at different points in a school year and for various reasons.
Understanding the purpose of each type of assessment used in school lessens the confusion and stress that students, parents and teachers often feel about assessments.
A recent report by UK awarding body OCR, , stated that: “The assessment process ought to help the student, supported by their parents and teachers, to understand what they know, understand and can do and where they need to put in the effort to increase their knowledge, understanding or skills to master their subject.”
A complete assessment cycle is one way to ensure this process.
Assessments working together
The complete assessment cycle is the recurring pattern schools take their learners through every year and at every stage of their education. The teaching and learning cycle may be more familiar, where teachers in every lesson, but the principal is the same.
The assessment cycle is made up of three parts:
Implementing the assessment cycle can provide unique and valuable insights about individual learners and about the teaching and learning taking place across the whole school.
鈥淲e use Cambridge baseline assessments to provide a complete 鈥榚cosphere鈥 on the learners.鈥 鈥 David Cooksey, head of academics,
When we talk about assessments, we usually think of big assessments like IGCSEs and A-levels first. These are high-stakes summative assessments. Externally marked examinations and qualifications used to see how much knowledge and understanding students have learnt over the course of a module, year, or learning stage.
Formative assessments are typically the kinds of tests teachers use every day in every lesson to aid the learning progress. These assessments help teachers decide how well their learners have understood the material and what needs to happen next to progress.
So, formative and summative assessments help us understand how learners are doing and what they have learnt. But how do we know if the results of formative and summative assessments mean that the student is performing as expected? Could they be underperforming, or even overperforming? How can we answer these questions without knowing where the learner began?
A final IGCSE or A-level grade is an important standard for qualification. But what does it say about the student鈥檚 overall learning progress?
By beginning with a baseline assessment, schools have a clear record of a learner鈥檚 starting point and their potential. So, with the final examination grade it becomes easy to see whether they have made the expected progress or if they have exceeded expectations.
measure a student鈥檚 underlying abilities and skills, rather than curriculum subject knowledge. Founded on research, baseline assessments focus on the three core areas that impact attainment in all subjects: reading and vocabulary, mathematics, and non-verbal ability.
Having the insight from the baseline data about students鈥 potential from the start means that teachers can set clear goals and targets. They can then use formative assessments throughout the year to check interventions are working and learning is progressing. The final summative grade is not only the culmination of hard study, but also the opportunity to reflect on how schools have added value to learning.
The complete assessment cycle puts the learner and learning at the centre of education 鈥 not assessments.
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