Summative Assessment Issues

Assessment systems for the future: the place of assessment by teachers was an Assessment Reform Group project looking at the potential contribution of teachers’ assessments to summative assessment systems

• Project
• Pamphlet
• Presentation by Professor Wynne Harlen to the AAIA Assessment Systems for the Future Conference, Birmingham on Friday 20th October 2006.

The Meanings and Consequences of Educational Assessments (PowerPoint) - a keynote speech by Dylan Wiliam at the 2001 AAIA Conference raised some fundamental questions about educational assessment. These are considered further in the following articles by Dylan Wiliam.

What is wrong with our educational assessments and what can be done about it? - Paper 1 (Acrobat).

The meanings and consequences of educational assessments - Paper 2 (Acrobat).

Reliability, validity, and all that jazz - Paper 3 (Acrobat).

In this paper, Dylan Wiliam considers the current system of National Curriculum levels and its limitations:
Level best? Levels of attainment in national curriculum assessment - Paper 4 (Acrobat)

The EPPI Centre conducts systematic reviews of research evidence across a range of topic areas. Some of its reports relating to assessment are:

A systematic review of the evidence of reliability and validity of assessment by teachers used for summative purposes.

A systematic review of the impact of summative assessment and tests on students' motivation for learning.

A systematic review of the evidence of the impact on students, teachers and the curriculum of the process of using assessment by teachers for summative purposes.