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Assessment

Overview

Educational assessment is the process of documenting, usually in measurable terms, knowledge, skills, attitudes and beliefs. Assessment can focus on the individual learner, the learning community (class, workshop, or other organized group of learners), the institution, or the educational system as a whole. According to the Academic Exchange Quarterly: "Studies of a theoretical or empirical nature (including case studies, portfolio studies, exploratory, or experimental work) addressing the assessment of learner aptitude and preparation, motivation and learning styles, learning outcomes in achievement and satisfaction in different educational contexts are all welcome, as are studies addressing issues of measurable standards and benchmarks".

It is important to notice that the final purposes and assessment practices in education depends on the theoretical framework of the practitioners and researchers, their assumptions and beliefs about the nature of human mind, the origin of knowledge and the process of learning.

The following table summarizes the main theoretical frameworks behind almost all the theoretical and research work, and the instructional practices in education (one them being, of course, the practice of assessment).

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Encyclopedia

TOPICS	EMPIRICISM	RATIONALISM	SOCIOCULTURALISM
Philosophical orientation	Hume, British Empiricism	Kant, Descartes, Continental Rationalism	Hegel, Marx, Cultural Dialectic
Metaphorical Orientation	Mechanistic/Operation of a Machine or Computer	Organismic/Growth of a Plant	Contextualist/Examination of a Historical Event.
Leading Theorists	B. F. Skinner (behaviorism)/ Herb Simon, John Anderson, Robert Gagne (Cognitivism)	Jean Piaget/Robbie Case	Lev Vygotsky, Luria, Bruner/Alan Collins, Jim Greeno, Ann Brown, John Bransford
Nature of Mind	Initially blank device that detects patterns in the world and operates on them. Qualitatively identical to lower animals, but quantitatively superior.	Organ that evolved to acquire knowledge by making sense of the world. Uniquely human, qualitatively different from lower animals.	Unique among species for developing language, tools, and education.
Nature of Knowledge (epistemology)	Hierarchically organized associations that present an accurate but incomplete representation of the world. Assumes that the sum of the components of knowledge is the same as the whole. Because knowledge is accurately represented by components, one who demonstrates those components is presumed to know	General and/or specific cognitive and conceptual structures, constructed by the mind and according to rational criteria. Essentially these are the higher-level structures that are constructed to assimilate new info to existing structure and as the structures accommodate more new info. Knowledge is represented by ability to solve new problems.	Distributed across people, communities, and physical environment. Represents culture of community that continues to create it. To know means to be attuned to the constraints and affordances of systems in which activity occurs. Knowledge is represented in the regularities of successful activity.
Nature of Learning (the process by which knowledge is increased or modified)	Forming and strengthening cognitive or S-R associations. Generation of knowledge by (1) exposure to pattern, (2) efficiently recognizing and responding to pattern (3) recognizing patterns in other contexts.	Engaging in active process of making sense of (“rationalizing”) the environment. Mind applying existing structure to new experience to rationalize it. You don’t really learn the components, only structures needed to deal with those components later.	Increasing ability to participate in a particular community of practice. Initiation into the life of a group, strengthening ability to participate by becoming attuned to constraints and affordances.
Features of Authentic Assessment	Assess knowledge components. Focus on mastery of many components and fluency. Use psychometrics to standardize.	Assess extended performance on new problems. Credit varieties of excellence.	Assess participation in inquiry and social practices of learning (e.g. portfolios, observations) Students should participate in assessment process. Assessments should be integrated into larger environment

Alternate meanings

According to the Merriam-Webster online dictionary the word assessment comes from the root word assess which is defined as:

to determine the rate or amount of (as a tax)
to impose (as a tax) according to an established rate b: to subject to a tax, charge, or levy
to make an official valuation of (property) for the purposes of taxation
to determine the importance, size, or value of (assess a problem)
to charge (a player or team) with a foul or penalty

Assessment in education is best described as an action "to determine the importance, size, or value of."

Types

The term assessment is generally used to refer to all activities teachers use to help students learn and to gauge student progress. Though the notion of assessment is generally more complicated than the following categories suggest, assessment is often divided for the sake of convenience using the following distinctions:

formative and summative
objective and subjective
referencing (criterion-referenced, norm-referenced, and ipsative
Ipsative
Ipsative literally means "of the self" , and is used in psychology as in the phrase "ipsative measure" to indicate a specific type of measure in which respondents compare two or more desirable options and pick the one which is most preferred...

)
informal and formal.

Formative and summative

Assessment is often divided into formative and summative categories for the purpose of considering different objectives for assessment practices.

Summative assessment
Summative Assessment
Summative assessment refers to the assessment of the learning and summarizes the development of learners at a particular time. After a period of work, e.g. a unit for two weeks, the learner sits for a test and then the teacher marks the test and assigns a score. The test aims to summarize learning...

- Summative assessment is generally carried out at the end of a course or project. In an educational setting, summative assessments are typically used to assign students a course grade.
Formative assessment
Formative Assessment
Formative assessment is a self-reflective process that intends to promote student attainment . Cowie and Bell define it as the bidirectional process between teacher and student to enhance, recognize and respond to the learning. Black and Wiliam consider an assessment ‘formative’ when the feedback...

- Formative assessment is generally carried out throughout a course or project. Formative assessment, also referred to as "educative assessment," is used to aid learning. In an educational setting, formative assessment might be a teacher (or peer
Peer group
A peer group is a social group consisting of people who are equal in such respects as age, education or social class. Members of a particular peer group often have similar interests and backgrounds...

) or the learner, providing feedback on a student's work, and would not necessarily be used for grading purposes.

Educational researcher Robert Stake explains the difference between formative and summative assessment with the following analogy:

Summative and formative assessment are often referred to in a learning context as assessment of learning and assessment for learning respectively. Assessment of learning is generally summative in nature and intended to measure learning outcomes and report those outcomes to students, parents, and administrators. Assessment of learning generally occurs at the conclusion of a class, course, semester, or academic year. Assessment for learning is generally formative in nature and is used by teachers to consider approaches to teaching and next steps for individual learners and the class.

A common form of formative assessment is diagnostic assessment. Diagnostic assessment measures a student's current knowledge and skills for the purpose of identifying a suitable program of learning. Self-assessment is a form of diagnostic assessment which involves students assessing themselves. Forward-looking assessment asks those being assessed to consider themselves in hypothetical future situations.

Performance-based assessment is similar to summative assessment, as it focuses on achievement. It is often aligned with the standards-based education reform

Standards-based education reform

Education reform in the United States since the 1980s has been largely driven by the setting of academic standards for what students should know and be able to do. These standards can then be used to guide all other system components. The standards-based reform movement calls for clear, measurable...

and outcomes-based education movement. Though ideally they are significantly different from a traditional multiple choice test, they are most commonly associated with standards-based assessment

Standards-based assessment

A standards based test is one based on the outcome-based education or performance-based education philosophy. Assessment is a key part of the standards reform movement. The first part is to set new, higher standards to be expected of every student. Then the curriculum must be aligned to the new...

which use free-form responses to standard questions scored by human scorers on a standards-based scale, meeting, falling below, or exceeding a performance standard rather than being ranked on a curve. A well-defined task is identified and students are asked to create, produce, or do something, often in settings that involve real-world application of knowledge and skills. Proficiency is demonstrated by providing an extended response. Performance formats are further differentiated into products and performances. The performance may result in a product, such as a painting, portfolio, paper, or exhibition, or it may consist of a performance, such as a speech, athletic skill, musical recital, or reading.

Objective and subjective

Assessment (either summative or formative) is often categorized as either objective or subjective. Objective assessment is a form of questioning which has a single correct answer. Subjective assessment is a form of questioning which may have more than one correct answer (or more than one way of expressing the correct answer). There are various types of objective and subjective questions. Objective question types include true/false answers, multiple choice

Multiple choice

Multiple choice is a form of assessment in which respondents are asked to select the best possible answer out of the choices from a list. The multiple choice format is most frequently used in educational testing, in market research, and in elections-- when a person chooses between multiple...

, multiple-response and matching questions. Subjective questions include extended-response questions and essays. Objective assessment is well suited to the increasingly popular computerized or online assessment

E-assessment

In its broadest sense, e-assessment is the use of information technology for any assessment-related activity. This definition embraces a wide range of student activity ranging from the use of a word processor to on-screen testing...

format.

Some have argued that the distinction between objective and subjective assessments is neither useful nor accurate because, in reality, there is no such thing as "objective" assessment. In fact, all assessments are created with inherent biases built into decisions about relevant subject matter and content, as well as cultural (class, ethnic, and gender) biases.

Basis of comparison

Test results can be compared against an established criterion, or against the performance of other students, or against previous performance:

Criterion-referenced assessment, typically using a criterion-referenced test

Criterion-referenced test

A criterion-referenced test is one that provides for translating test scores into a statement about the behavior to be expected of a person with that score or their relationship to a specified subject matter. Most tests and quizzes written by school teachers are criterion-referenced tests. The...

, as the name implies, occurs when candidates are measured against defined (and objective) criteria. Criterion-referenced assessment is often, but not always, used to establish a person’s competence (whether s/he can do something). The best known example of criterion-referenced assessment is the driving test, when learner drivers are measured against a range of explicit criteria (such as “Not endangering other road users”).

Norm-referenced assessment (colloquially known as "grading on the curve

Bell curve grading

In education, grading on a curve is a statistical method of assigning grades designed to yield a pre-determined distribution of grades among the students in a class...

"), typically using a norm-referenced test

Norm-referenced test

A norm-referenced test / NRT is a type of test, assessment, or evaluation which yields an estimate of the position of the tested individual in a predefined population, with respect to the trait being measured. This estimate is derived from the analysis of test scores and possibly other relevant...

, is not measured against defined criteria. This type of assessment is relative to the student body undertaking the assessment. It is effectively a way of comparing students. The IQ test is the best known example of norm-referenced assessment. Many entrance tests (to prestigious schools or universities) are norm-referenced, permitting a fixed proportion of students to pass (“passing” in this context means being accepted into the school or university rather than an explicit level of ability). This means that standards may vary from year to year, depending on the quality of the cohort; criterion-referenced assessment does not vary from year to year (unless the criteria change).

Ipsative assessment is self comparison either in the same domain over time, or comparative to other domains within the same student.

Informal and formal

Assessment can be either formal or informal. Formal assessment usually implicates a written document, such as a test, quiz, or paper. A formal assessment is given a numerical score or grade based on student performance, whereas an informal assessment does not contribute to a student's final grade. An informal assessment usually occurs in a more casual manner and may include observation, inventories, checklists, rating scales, rubrics

Rubric (academic)

A rubric is a scoring tool for subjective assessments. It is a set of criteria and standards linked to learning objectives that is used to assess a student's performance on papers, projects, essays, and other assignments...

, performance and portfolio assessments, participation, peer and self evaluation, and discussion.

Internal and external

Internal assessment is set and marked by the school (i.e. teachers). Students get the mark and feedback regarding the assessment. External assessment is set by the governing body, and is marked by non-biased personnel. With external assessment, students only receive a mark. Therefore, they have no idea how they actually performed (i.e. what bits they answered correctly.)

Standards of quality

In general, high-quality assessments are considered those with a high level of reliability

Reliability (statistics)

In statistics, reliability is the consistency of a set of measurements or measuring instrument, often used to describe a test. This can either be whether the measurements of the same instrument give or are likely to give the same measurement , or in the case of more subjective instruments, such as...

and validity

Validity (statistics)

In psychology, validity has two distinct fields of application. The first involves test validity, a concept that has evolved with the field of psychometrics: "Validity refers to the degree to which evidence and theory support the interpretations of test scores entailed by proposed uses of tests"....

. Approaches to reliability and validity vary, however.

Reliability

Reliability (statistics)

relates to the consistency of an assessment. A reliable assessment is one which consistently achieves the same results with the same (or similar) cohort of students. Various factors affect reliability – including ambiguous questions, too many options within a question paper, vague marking instructions and poorly trained markers. Traditionally, the reliability of an assessment is based on the following:

Temporal stability: Performance on a test is comparable on two or more separate occasions.
Form equivalence: Performance among examinees is equivalent on different forms of a test based on the same content.
Internal consistency: Responses on a test are consistent across questions. For example: In a survey that asks respondents to rate attitudes toward technology, consistency would be expected in responses to the following questions:
- "I feel very negative about computers in general."
- "I enjoy using computers."

Validity

A valid

Validity (statistics)

assessment is one which measures what it is intended to measure. For example, it would not be valid to assess driving skills through a written test alone. A more valid way of assessing driving skills would be through a combination of tests that help determine what a driver knows, such as through a written test of driving knowledge, and what a driver is able to do, such as through a performance assessment of actual driving. Teachers frequently complain that some examinations do not properly assess the syllabus

Syllabus

A syllabus , is an outline and summary of topics to be covered in an education or training course. It is descriptive...

upon which the examination is based; they are, effectively, questioning the validity of the exam.

Validity of an assessment is generally gauged through examination of evidence in the following categories:

Content--Does the content of the test measure stated objectives?
Criterion--Do scores correlate to an outside reference? (ex: Do high scores on a 4th grade reading test accurately predict reading skill in future grades?)
Construct--Does the assessment correspond to other significant variables? (ex: Do ESL students consistently perform differently on a writing exam than native English speakers?)

A good assessment has both validity and reliability, plus the other quality attributes noted above for a specific context and purpose. In practice, an assessment is rarely totally valid or totally reliable. A ruler which is marked wrong will always give the same (wrong) measurements. It is very reliable, but not very valid. Asking random individuals to tell the time without looking at a clock or watch is sometimes used as an example of an assessment which is valid, but not reliable. The answers will vary between individuals, but the average answer is probably close to the actual time. In many fields, such as medical research, educational testing, and psychology, there will often be a trade-off between reliability and validity. A history test written for high validity will have many essay and fill-in-the-blank questions. It will be a good measure of mastery of the subject, but difficult to score completely accurately. A history test written for high reliability will be entirely multiple choice. It isn't as good at measuring knowledge of history, but can easily be scored with great precision. We may generalise from this. The more reliable is our estimate of what we purport to measure, the less certain we are that we are actually measuring that aspect of attainment. It is also important to note that there are at least thirteen sources of invalidity, which can be estimated for individual students in test situations. They never are. Perhaps this is because their social purpose demands the absence of any error, and validity errors are usually so high that they would destabilise the whole assessment industry.

It is well to distinguish between "subject-matter" validity and "predictive" validity. The former, used widely in education, predicts the score a student would get on a similar test but with different questions. The latter, used widely in the workplace, predicts performance. Thus, a subject-matter-valid test of knowledge of driving rules is appropriate while a predictively-valid test would assess whether the potential driver could follow those rules.

Testing standards

In the field of psychometrics

Psychometrics

Psychometrics is the field of study concerned with the theory and technique of educational and psychological measurement, which includes the measurement of knowledge, abilities, attitudes, and personality traits. The field is primarily concerned with the study of measurement instruments such as...

, the Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing
Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing
The Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing is a set of testing standards developed jointly by the American Educational Research Association , American Psychological Association , and the National Council on Measurement in Education...

place standards about validity and reliability, along with errors of measurement and related considerations under the general topic of test construction, evaluation and documentation. The second major topic covers standards related to fairness in testing, including fairness

Justice

Justice is the concept of moral rightness based on ethics, rationality, law, natural law, fairness, or equity.-Concept of justice:Justice... concerns the proper ordering of things and persons within a society. As a concept it has been subject to philosophical, legal, and theological reflection and...

in testing and test use, the right

Right

Rights are entitlements or permissions, usually of a legal or moral nature. Rights are of vital importance in the fields of law and ethics, especially theories of justice and deontology.-Theoretical distinctions:...

s and responsibilities

Social responsibility

Social responsibility is an ethical or ideological theory that an entity whether it is a government, corporation, organization or individual has a responsibility to society at large...

of test takers, testing individuals of diverse linguistic backgrounds

Language

A language is a system for encoding and decoding information. In its most common use, the term refers to so-called "natural languages" — the forms of communication considered peculiar to humankind. In linguistics the term is extended to refer to the human cognitive facility of creating and using...

, and testing individuals with disabilities

Disability

Disability is defined by the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 as "a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities."...

. The third and final major topic covers standards related to testing applications, including the responsibilities of test users, psychological testing and assessment

Psychological testing

Psychological testing is a field characterized by the use of samples of behavior in order to infer generalizations about a given individual. The technical term for the science behind psychological testing is psychometrics...

, educational testing and assessment

Test (student assessment)

A test or an examination is an assessment, often administered on paper or on the computer, intended to measure the test-takers' or respondents' knowledge, skills, aptitudes, or classification in many other topics...

, testing in employment

Employment

Employment is a contract between two parties, one being the employer and the other being the employee. An employee may be defined as: "A person in the service of another under any contract of hire, express or implied, oral or written, where the employer has the power or right to control and direct...

and credentialing

Professional certification

align="right"| |}Professional certification, trade certification, or professional designation, often called simply certification or qualification, is a designation earned by a person to assure qualification to perform a job or task...

, plus testing in program evaluation

Program evaluation

Program evaluation is a systematic method for collecting, analyzing, and using information to answer basic questions about projects, policies and programs. Program evaluation is used in the public and private sector and is taught in numerous universities. Evaluation became particularly relevant...

and public policy

Standardized testing and public policy

Standardized testing is used as a public policy strategy to establish stronger accountability measures for public education. While the National Assessment of Education Progress has served as an educational barometer for some thirty years by administering standardized tests on a regular basis to...

Evaluation standards

In the field of evaluation

Evaluation

Evaluation is systematic determination of merit, worth, and significance of something or someone using criteria against a set of standards. Evaluation often is used to characterize and appraise subjects of interest in a wide range of human enterprises, including the arts, criminal justice,...

, and in particular educational evaluation

Educational evaluation

Educational evaluation is the evaluation process of characterizing and appraising some aspect/s of an educational process.There are two common purposes in educational evaluation which are, at times, in conflict with one another...

, the Joint Committee on Standards for Educational Evaluation

Joint Committee on Standards for Educational Evaluation

The Joint Committee on Standards for Educational Evaluation is an American/Canadian based Standards Developer Organization . The Joint Committee represents a coalition of major professional associations formed in 1975 to help improve the quality of standardized evaluation. The Committee has thus...

has published three sets of standards for evaluations. "The Personnel Evaluation Standards" was published in 1988, The Program Evaluation Standards (2nd edition) was published in 1994, and The Student Evaluation Standards was published in 2003.

Each publication presents and elaborates a set of standards for use in a variety of educational settings. The standards provide guidelines for designing, implementing, assessing and improving the identified form of evaluation. Each of the standards has been placed in one of four fundamental categories to promote educational evaluations that are proper, useful, feasible, and accurate. In these sets of standards, validity and reliability considerations are covered under the accuracy topic. For example, the student accuracy standards help ensure that student evaluations will provide sound, accurate, and credible information about student learning and performance.

Controversy

Concerns over how best to apply assessment practices across public school systems have largely focused on questions about the use of high stakes testing and standardized tests, often used to gauge student progress, teacher quality, and school-, district-, or state-wide educational success.

No Child Left Behind

For most researchers and practitioners, the question is not whether tests should be administered at all--there is a general consensus that, when administered in useful ways, tests can offer useful information about student progress and curriculum implementation, as well as offering formative uses for learners. The real issue, then, is whether testing practices as currently implemented can provide these services for educators and students.

In the U.S., the No Child Left Behind Act

No Child Left Behind Act

The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 , often abbreviated in print as NCLB and sometimes shortened in pronunciation to "nicklebee", is a United States Act of Congress that was originally proposed by President George W. Bush immediately after taking office...

mandates standardized testing nationwide. These tests align with state curriculum and link teacher, student, district, and state accountability to the results of these tests. Proponents of NCLB argue that it offers a tangible method of gauging educational success, holding teachers and schools accountable for failing scores, and closing the achievement gap

Achievement gap

An achievement gap refers to the observed disparity on a number of educational measures between the performance of groups of students, especially groups defined by gender, race/ethnicity, ability, and socioeconomic status...

across class and ethnicity.

Opponents of standardized testing dispute these claims, arguing that holding educators accountable for test results leads to the practice of "teaching to the test." Additionally, many argue that the focus on standardized testing encourages teachers to equip students with a narrow set of skills that enhance test performance without actually fostering a deeper understanding of subject matter or key principles within a knowledge domain.

High Stakes Testing Practices

The assessments which have caused the most controversy in the US are the use of High school graduation examination

High school graduation examination

According to a 2006 study by the Center on Education Policy, two-thirds of the 15 million public high school students in the United States of America were required to pass a high school graduation examination to get a diploma of completion of studies...

s, which first appeared to support the defunct Certificate of Initial Mastery

Certificate of Initial Mastery

The Certificate of Mastery was created by report "America's Choice: High Skills or Low Wages". The CIM has been called an outcome-based education diploma as it would be either be necessary to receive or replace the high school diploma, and was characteristic of education reform legislation in many...

, which can be used to deny diplomas to students who do not meet high standards. They argue that one measure should not be the sole determinant of success or failure. Technical notes for standards based assessments such as Washington's WASL

Washington Assessment of Student Learning

The Washington Assessment of Student Learning is a standardized educational assessment system that was given as the primary assessment in the state of Washington from spring 1997 to summer 2009. The WASL was also used as a high school graduation examination beginning in the spring of 2006 and...

warn that such tests lack the reliability needed to use scores for individual decisions, yet the state legislature passed a law requiring that the WASL

Washington Assessment of Student Learning

be used for just such a purpose. Others such as Washington State University's Don Orlich

Don Orlich

Don Orlich is professor emeritus of the Science Mathematics EngineeringEducation Center at Washington State University. He has published morethan 100 professional papers, co-authored more than 30 monographs and books, and is the senior co-author of “Teaching Strategies: A guide to Effective...

question the use of test items far beyond standard cognitive levels for testing ages, and the use of expensive, holistically graded tests to measure the quality of both the system and individuals for very large numbers of students.

High stakes tests, even when they do not invoke punishment, have been cited for causing sickness and anxiety in students and teachers, and narrowing the curriculum towards test preparation. In an exercise designed to make children comfortable about testing, a Spokane, Washington newspaper published a picture of a monster that feeds on fear. The published image is purportedly the response of a student who was asked to draw a picture of what she thought of the state assessment. Such high-stakes testing, however, is thought to be acceptable if it increases student learning outcomes.

Standardized multiple choice tests do not conform to the latest education standards. Nevertheless, they are much less expensive, less prone to disagreement between scorers, and can be scored quickly enough to be returned before the end of the school year. Legislation such as No Child Left Behind also define failure if a school does not show improvement from year to year, even if the school is already successful. The use of IQ tests has been banned in some states for educational decisions, and norm referenced tests have been criticized for bias against minorities. Yet the use of standards based assessments to make high stakes decisions, with greatest impact falling on low-scoring ethnic groups, is widely supported by education officials because they show the achievement gap

Achievement gap

which is promised to be closed merely by implementing standards based education reform. Many states are currently using testing practices which have been condemned by dissenting education experts such as Fairtest

FairTest

The National Center for Fair & Open Testing, also known as FairTest, is an American educational organization that addresses issues related to accuracy in student test taking and scoring.-Mission statement:...

and Alfie Kohn

Alfie Kohn

Alfie Kohn is an American author and lecturer who has explored a number of topics in education, parenting, and human behavior...

21st Century Assessment

It has been widely noted that with the emergence of social media

Social media

Social media are media designed to be disseminated through social interaction, created using highly accessible and scalable publishing techniques. Social media supports the human need for social interaction, using Internet- and web-based technologies to transform broadcast media monologues into...

and Web 2.0

Web 2.0

The term "Web 2.0" is commonly associated with web applications which facilitate interactive information sharing, interoperability, user-centered design and collaboration on the World Wide Web. Examples of Web 2.0 include web-based communities, hosted services, web applications, social-networking...

technologies and mindsets, learning is increasingly collaborative and knowledge increasingly distributed across many members of a learning community. Traditional assessment practices, however, focus in large part on the individual and fail to account for knowledge-building and learning in context. As researchers in the field of assessment consider the cultural shifts that arise from the emergence of a more participatory culture

Participatory culture

Participatory culture is a neologism in reference of, but opposite to a Consumer culture — in other words a culture in which private persons do not act as consumers only, but also as contributors or producers . The term is most often applied to the production or creation of some type of published...

, they will need to find new methods of applying assessments to learners. "

Assessment in a democratic school

Sudbury model of democratic education schools do not perform and do not offer assessments, evaluations, transcripts, or recommendations, asserting that they do not rate people, and that school is not a judge; comparing students to each other, or to some standard that has been set is for them a violation of the student's right to privacy and to self-determination. Students decide for themselves how to measure their progress as self-starting learners as a process of self-evaluation: real life-long learning and the proper educational assessment for the 21st Century, they adduce.

According to Sudbury schools, this policy does not cause harm to their students as they move on to life outside the school. However, they admit it makes the process more difficult, but that such hardship is part of the students learning to make their own way, set their own standards and meet their own goals.

The no-grading and no-rating policy helps to create an atmosphere free of competition among students or battles for adult approval, and encourages a positive co-operative environment amongst the student body.

The final stage of a Sudbury education, should the student choose to take it, is the graduation thesis. Each student writes on the topic of how they have prepared themselves for adulthood and entering the community at large. This thesis is submitted to the Assembly, who reviews it. The final stage of the thesis process is an oral defense given by the student in which they open the floor for questions, challenges and comments from all Assembly members. At the end, the Assembly votes by secret ballot on whether or not to award a diploma.

External links

Assessment in Higher Education web site.
Edutopia: Assessment Overview A collection of media and articles on the topic of assessment from The George Lucas Educational Foundation
The Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing
Joint Committee on Standards for Educational Evaluation
Creating Good MCQs A whitepaper by Focalworks
Assessment 2.0 Modernizing assessment