On Assessment

'Away with the cant of Measures not men'!- the idle supposition that it is the harness and not the horses that draw the chariot along. If the comparison must be made, if the distinction must be taken, men are everything, measures comparatively nothing.'

Why Assess?

The purpose of assessment is to provide accurate information on the student's knowledge about, and ability to use language in context. This information should lead to an evaluation of the student's progress and assist the teacher and the student to determine their immediate teaching and learning needs. Assessment can also be used to build on the student's skills and extend them to an imaginative and challenging perspective on prior learning.

What is assessment?

Assessment reflects the curriculum, especially the relevant English Syllabus and involves keeping on-going, systematic and comprehensive records in relation to student performance.

Assessment takes into account individual achievement at a moment in time, to ascertain a student's readiness for (particular) learning, progress over a period of time and the aims/outcomes of the relevant Syllabus. Therefore English teachers are engaged in assessment at all phases of their programs. Most of this assessment is formative in nature, though some of it will be summative.

Effective Assessment

Effective assessment, both diagnostic and summative, should provide an accurate and specific description of performance in the composition of meaningful texts for real purposes in contexts that are significant for students.

Given these principles, external and internal assessment and evaluation should be substantially developed by English teachers as it is they who have a working understanding of student learning and performance. Internal assessment should also allow for student contribution in setting up procedures and making judgements about their own proficiency in English.

Assessment should be concerned with the full dimension of proficiency, not be limited to the testing of supposed discrete skills. This takes into account a broad range of evidence, and a broad scope of procedures from informal observation to formal testing and, by necessity, involves consideration of both processes and products. In addition to this diversity of tasks, effective assessment programs recognise that criterion-referenced, work-required and descriptive assessment and reporting procedures provide more information than grading and ranking procedures.

Assessment procedures should also recognise the active participation of students in their own learning and foster their growing independence by respecting their right to know

• the purpose of the assessment
• its role in their learning program (formative or summative)
• the means of assessment
• what is valued in the assessment

and their right to be given relevant feedback. An integral part of any effective assessment program is the development of a student's competence in peer assessment and self-assessment.

Finally, English teachers acknowledge that conceptualisations and definitions of assessment are socio - cultural constructs and are inevitably and unavoidably political in nature. While one culture will value rote learning and assess accordingly, other cultures will value problem-solving or exposition skills. Accordingly, English teachers are duty bound to articulate explicitly the socio-political purposes and contexts of assessment. If need be, English teachers will challenge assessment procedures that do not reflect the breadth of knowledge, skills and understanding that constitute the dynamic nature of subject English.