Supporting Assessment Design at Key Stage 3
Key terms with definitions
A
Ability | The capacity to do something well. See also Thinking Skills and Personal Capabilities. |
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Access arrangements | These arrangements allow pupils with special educational needs, disabilities or temporary injuries to access an assessment. They are agreed before the assessment. They do not change the demands of the assessment. An access arrangement that meets the needs of a pupil with a disability would be a ‘reasonable adjustment’ for that particular pupil. |
Assessment | The process of making judgements about the extent to which a pupil’s work meets the assessment criteria for a qualification or unit, or part of a unit. It is a measurement, evaluation or estimation of the nature, ability or quality of something (such as skills, knowledge or understanding). |
Assessment co-ordinator |
A member of staff who leads on assessment. |
Assessment for Learning |
Assessment activity that influences or directs further and future learning (see Formative assessment). |
Assessment objective (AO) | Assessment objectives (AOs) refer to the skills, knowledge and understanding that should be demonstrated in the responses to questions in an assessment. |
Assistive technologies | Mechanical or electronic devices that help individuals with particular needs to overcome limitations. |
Awarding organisation | An organisation that awards qualifications – also known as an awarding body, examining body or examinations board. |
C
Command words | The words used in instructions to elicit a response from learners. |
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Comparability | A side-by-side measure of two or more assessments to see how similar or dissimilar they are or the same assessment taken at different times or by different pupils. |
Construct | The construct of an assessment is what the assessment is claiming to measure. |
Construct validity | Construct validity concerns the extent to which the assessment accurately assesses what it's meant to assess. |
E
E-assessment | An assessment (examination, test, task or other activity) carried out on a computer and/or online. |
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F
Fairness | When an assessment gives fair and equitable access to all individuals sitting it – all pupils are given an equal chance of doing their best. |
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Formative assessment | An assessment (examination, test, task or other activity) that helps teachers understand what pupils have already learned and which can help them decide what needs reinforcing or what to teach next. |
I
Item | The specific task that candidates are asked to perform within an assessment. |
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L
Learning outcomes | What the learner should be able to do or know in given circumstances. |
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M
Mark scheme | Details of how marks are to be awarded in relation to a particular assessment task; also known as marking criteria, assessment criteria or performance criteria. |
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Minimising bias | Ensuring that an assessment does not produce unreasonably adverse outcomes for pupils who share a common attribute. The minimisation of bias is related to fairness to all pupils and is closely related to statutory equality duties. |
Moderation | A process of sampling assessments to ensure that they have been marked accurately and consistently (see standardisation and verification). |
P
Prior attainment | Existing or previous educational achievement. |
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Q
Q Skills | The Prerequisite Skills, more commonly known as Q Skills, are an assessment resource to support teachers and classroom assistants. The skills described in the resource build towards Level 1 of the Levels of Progression in the Cross-Curricular Skills of Communication, Using Mathematics and Using ICT. |
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R
Raw score | The actual mark or score attained in an assessment, which can be converted to a standardised score. |
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Reasonable adjustment | A reasonable step taken to lessen or remove the effects of a substantial disadvantage to a disabled learner. A reasonable adjustment for a particular person may be unique to that individual. (See also Access Arrangements.) |
Reliability | The extent to which assessment results are an accurate measurement of pupils’ demonstration of the abilities specified by the assessment criteria. A measure of reliability is assessment stability or repeatability, which is the extent to which repeating the assessment gives similar results. |
Rubric | The (usually) written instructions telling a pupil how to approach an assessment. Pupils should be told to pay attention to the rubric in all assessments. Rubrics can include time allowed, marks allocated per question/page/paper, use of calculators etc. |
S
Source material | Material from external sources that pupils are invited to draw on to respond to a task. |
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Standard | A required or agreed level of quality or attainment; something used as a measure, norm or model in assessment. |
Standardisation | The process of ensuring all assessors/examiners are marking to the same standard. |
Statutory assessment |
Assessment that schools are legally obliged to carry out. |
Stimulus material | Material generated by assessors and included in a task to encourage pupils to demonstrate their subject capabilities. |
Summative assessment |
Assessment of what has been learned; a summary of attainment at the end of a given period of learning. |
T
Target | What pupils will aim to achieve next, either in the short term or longer term; may be set for individual pupils, for groups or for a whole class. |
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Task | A practical activity used for assessment purposes. This may be observed by a teacher, who may record the pupil carrying out the task or take notes on how the pupil completes it. |
Test | A series of questions that a pupil generally answers on their own, without help, on paper or electronically. |
Thinking Skills and Personal Capabilities |
In the context of the Northern Ireland Curriculum at Key Stage 3 these are identified as:
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V
Validity | The extent to which an assessment provides a measure of what it was intended to assess. |
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