Overall Teacher Judgements Against the National Standards

The Teaching, Learning & Assessment Who is it about? Who is it for? Who will it benefit? What does that mean for us? Is there something that might need to change in our approach?

Increasing the Dependability… Increasing the dependability of evidence from all sources is fundamental to reaching a valid and defensible OTJ. Students’ performance will vary from day to day depending on: the nature of the assessment task the conditions in which the assessment is undertaken the purpose of the assessment the student’s preparation the student’s engagement and motivation. When teachers experience some degree of inconsistency with assessment information, they should inquire into this further. If the inconsistency cannot be explained by normal variation in students’ performance, then there may be a need to collect further information in order to reach robust judgments.

Digging deeper… Making judgments involves both student and teacher. Evidence is collected cumulatively over the year, in contexts across the curriculum and is brought together to judge achievement in relation to National Standards. There is a need for information from a range of assessment approaches so that decisions are dependable. An overall teacher judgment is used to determine which standards are the best fit, then whether a student is above, at, below or well below the standards that relate to their level. Moderation improves both the dependability of OTJs and the evidence that supports them. Teacher curriculum and pedagogical content knowledge is essential for making a dependable OTJ. Overall teacher judgments, constructed with students, are the basis of the reporting in relation to National Standards.

Questions to ask… How might I involve students in the process of making OTJs in my classroom? How much information might I need to determine an OTJ? How might I support the judgments I make and how dependable are they? What do I need to do to increase the dependability of my judgments? How does our school manage the moderation of OTJs?

Moderation What is it? Why do it? What is its purpose? Moderation is the process of teachers sharing their expectations and understanding of standards with each other in order to improve the consistency of their decisions about student learning.

Why Moderate??? Making reliable, valid, evidence-based decisions Moderation helps teachers to increase the dependability of the assessment information they gather. This improves the decisions they make about student learning. Teacher-guided moderation between students helps them to develop their skills of self and peer-assessment. This has a direct, positive impact on teaching and learning as both teacher and student develop shared expectations and understanding of what quality work looks like and what criteria define it. Both students’ and teachers’ assessment capability can be enhanced. This information can also encourage the development of teachers’ self-review skills and inform professional development decision-making

Time helps… Making consistent decisions over time Making consistent, reliable and valid decisions across different points in time is important when schools report student progress or compare cohort data with historical information. Assessment judgments can change over time. This is called ‘assessment creep’. All schools experience variables that challenge the consistency of practice such as staff changes, changes in student numbers or changing education demands. Consistent moderation over time can prevent this in a number of ways. Always applying the same standardised criteria ensures consistency over time. Where nationally standardised criteria or exemplars are available, these become the same external reference used each year or each time. These exemplars would be used within the practice phase of the moderation process. Moderators will change over time but the same criteria and associated references will remain and continue to guide decisions. To augment this approach schools add their own school-based student samples to reflect local flavour, contexts, tikanga or cultural richness to the exemplar collection.

The benefits of involving students When students are actively involved they can participate in selecting evidence (e.g. samples of their work) that best demonstrate the intended learning outcomes. The process of assessment develops students’ understanding of the desired outcomes and success criteria. Making judgments is closely linked to developing the skills of self and peer-assessment. This can lead to shared expectations of learning and understandings of standards between teachers and students. Greater student confidence in teacher judgments. Provides greater transparency of the assessment process.

The benefits of moderation - to teachers Brings together collective wisdom, resulting in greater consistency of judgment, and focused teaching. Provides greater confidence in teacher judgments and assurance that judgments are consistent with other professionals. Leads to shared expectations of learning and understandings of standards and progression of learning. Develops deeper understandings about content and progressions of learning. Improves quality of assessment. Alignment of expectations and judgments with standards or progressions, and hence improved teaching and learning. Assurance to parents and others that interpretations of students’ achievements are in line with other professionals.

The benefits of moderation - to leadership teams and Boards of Trustees Greater confidence in teachers’ judgments and assurance that judgments are consistent within and across schools . Provides useful, dependable information for target setting. Provides information that can shape future professional development needs for teachers.

Skills required for moderation and building a supportive learning culture Professional respect and trust Communication skills and participation in decision making Open-mindedness to new information and perspectives Deepening pedagogical and curriculum knowledge Sharing of information and power Shared responsibility

The roles Student Active participation in learning and assessment Complete work to the best of their ability Develop understanding of desired learning outcomes Participate in selecting evidence for moderation Use skills developed through self and peer assessment Teacher Select evidence to moderate Participate in the moderation process Share their expectations and interpretations in order to clarify their understandings about what students have achieved and what the next steps in learning are School Provide a moderation coordinator/leader Provide regular opportunities for teachers to share their expectations and interpretations Develop consistent and cohesive policies and procedures for moderation Review their assessment cycles to incorporate regular moderation

Moderation is a process High quality teacher judgments: appropriate, comparable and equitable Conversations about planning for moderation, sharing expectations; collecting and analysing evidence of student learning Comparison of that evidence against expectations, benchmarks or ‘standards’. Adjustment of judgments to align with common expectations, benchmarks or ‘standards’.