political

Gordon and Campbell (2014) implicate that the relationship between context, perspective and human behaviour must be a central consideration in contemporary understandings of assessment in education.

Importantly, Klenowski identifies that” the policy rationale for such change, which includes testing, is that it will improve standards of teaching and learning regardless of the student’s religion, race, gender, socio-economic or socio-cultural background”. However, she is quick to point out that “social impact of changes to education systems is not something to be taken lightly when the impact on students results in them being turned off learning or labelled as failures. Unhealthy competition between schools, teaching to the test, increased stress levels for children, parents and teachers, and huge costs are just some of the reactions to testing that is high-stakes.”

Assessment has the potential to operate inequitably and also point to inequity (E-text) Equity, economic factors - intermingle with political but also involve business and industry elements as well as parental and student interests in securing future opportunities for students

An effective teacher adopts a range of assessment options to engage all students irrespective of where they are on the learning continuum CHurchill, 2014)

Masters (2014) purports that views of assessment have become unnecessarily complicated and that in fact there is one fundamental purpose of assessment which is to “establish and understand where learners are in an aspect of their learning at the time of assessment” (Masters, 2014, p.1) He further explains that whilst assessment serves one fundamental purpose, the data generated can differ in detail, can serve both retrospective and prospective functions and can be interpreted against different frames of reference: domain referencing (the criteria itself), norm referencing (against others - standardised testing), minimal standards or past performances.
Assessment tasks are never important in themselves. They are transient and interchangeable
Assessment methods must be chosen not on the basis of philosophical positions
or personal preferences, but on their demonstrated capacity to provide domain-relevant observations.

Clarifying and sharing learning intentions and criteria for success.

Brady suggests that short-answer tests are the most common assessment strategy employed in primary school with the option of oral implementation suiting younger students. The benefit of this form of testing over multiple choice tests is that it reduces the likelihood of students guessing answers whilst still offering a reliable and time efficient way of marking. Arguably, this strategy is most appropriately used prospectively, for example at the beginning of a unit of work to elicit students' prior knowledge, misconceptions and knowledge gaps which can then inform planning and effective differentiation processes. As a summative assessment, for example at the end of a unit, this strategy is problematic in that it's limited scope for assessing higher order thinking and metacognitive skills restricts the depth of information that can be captured about students' conceptual understanding and the information in itself does not reveal progress (Brady). Furthermore, the authenticity of the assesment data depends on the test questions being 'fit for purpoese', reflecting the learning objectives and curriculum achievement standards. (

Arguably, a more sophisticated way to capture information about students's growth over time is a portfolio.Whilst available time may be a constraining factor and access to technology may determine whether portfolios can be digital or not, this assessment strategy enables students to develop a permanent record of their learning and provides a readily accessible record for teachers to utilise formatively, and to refer to retrospectively during feedback or reporting processes (Victoria State Government Education and Training, 2018). Clearly, effective portfolios depend on good organisation and transparency in terms of purpose. Rather than a collection of all student work, portfolio artefacts must be carefully chosen to align with the learning objectives and curriculum achievement standards (Victoria State Government Education and Training, 2018). Furthermore, Brady declares that incorporating self-assessment and reflection enhances the value of portfolios as assessment resources. Whilst portfolios offer rich and sophisticated data, unlike short-answer tests which are easily marked, the subjective nature of portfolios means that the evaluation process is time consuming and must be supported with a rubric or clear criteria for fair judgement (Brady).

A more immediate and interactive assessment strategy is the use of effective questioning to gather evidence of conceptual understanding, knowledge and skills (Victoria State Government Education and Training, 2018). Questioning does not in itself produce tangible records and student responses are subject to interpretation, making teacher bias a consideration in terms of validity and fairness of assessment (. However, used effectively, questioning enables teachers to probe and challenge students' understanding, encourage higher order thinking and expose misconceptions whilst learning is happening, supporting adjustments and adaption as a natural part of the teaching and learning cycle.