Effective assessment practice
Outlines the purpose and principles of assessment that provide all students with an opportunity to demonstrate their understanding and progress in learning.
Access the Effective assessment practices guide which offers practical assessment advice for teachers and school leaders K-10.
Purpose of assessment
Effective assessment is embedded within the teaching and learning cycle. It serves as a connecting thread to ensure that each segment is responsive to student needs.
It supports teachers’ responses to the following questions:
- What do I want my students to learn?
- How will my students get there?
- How do I know when my students get there?
- Where are my students now?
"The fundamental purpose of assessment in education is to establish and understand where learners are in an aspect of their learning at the time of assessment." (Masters, 2014)
Distinctions between types of assessments such as formative and summative are often used but can be unhelpful at times. What makes an assessment formative or summative is how the information collected is intended to be used.
Formative assessment is generally thought of as directly informing the next steps in student learning. Most assessment can be used this way.
Less formal assessment modes, such as teacher observation and questioning, are used frequently, often many times within each lesson. Students are provided with quick, actionable feedback either as an individual, group or class.
With more formal modes there is often a longer delay between when the student sits an assessment and when they receive feedback. This is where the term summative is sometimes used.
Summative assessment occurs at the end of an extended period of explicit teaching such as a unit of work or a stage of learning. They are used to evaluate student achievement of content knowledge and/or skills against expected curriculum standards or learning objectives.
Summative assessments can, and should, still be used formatively providing actionable feedback and further learning opportunities to consolidate their understanding.
The Assessment modes page provides further detail on how different modes of assessment can be used to develop on-balanced judgements of student learning.
Key considerations
Assessment is a key part of developing learning sequences since it informs instructional choices and provides opportunities for reflection and evaluation. More structured approaches should be planned alongside the development of learning sequences. Less structured approaches can be considered at a lesson level and as the learning takes place at point of need.
Quality assessment:
- directly aligns with student learning outcomes and activities undertaken
- considers how students best demonstrate these learning outcomes
- is relevant to the students’ learning stage and life experiences
- allows for differentiation to show the depth of student understanding
- uses different approaches as part of the teaching and learning cycle
- provides feedback that promotes learning progress.
Explicit teaching and assessment
Formative assessment strategies support explicit teaching. This can be seen in the statement, Explicit teaching in NSW public schools (PDF 990 KB). This statement details the role of learning intentions and success criteria, effective questioning, checking for understanding and effective feedback in explicit teaching practice. These strategies are also presented in the Effective assessment practices guide to support the effective implementation of formative assessment. For more information, visit Explicit teaching.
Principles of effective assessment
For assessment to effectively measure or provide insight into students’ understanding, tasks should be easily understood, measure what they intend to, and allow all students to show what they know and can do.
When designing tasks, the following principles should be considered.
An equitable assessment is fair, inclusive, and accessible to all students, allowing demonstration of learning across a range of different contexts.
See the Resources section of this page for further information about equity in supporting students.
A valid assessment is one that accurately reflects the syllabus outcomes it is designed to measure and is designed in a format that allows students to successfully show what they know, understand, and can do in relation to the outcomes.
Assessment should relate to the learning that is, or has, taken place and be provided in an appropriate format for that assessment.
A reliable assessment provides consistent and dependable results with different learners.
A reliable assessment should accurately measure what a student knows, understands, and can do without influence from chance, bias, systematic error, or cheating.
Practices to support consistent teacher judgement can improve the overall reliability of assessment.
An assessment task is transparent when the purpose, meaning and requirements of the task are understood by all students.
Explicit quality criteria are included to clarify the aspects of learning being assessed.
Timeliness ensures that assessments are part of an ongoing process to monitor learning over time.
The view of the student formed from formative and summative assessment should be developed over time and change as the student grows in their learning.
Using different modes of assessment as part of the learning creates valuable opportunities for students to develop their understanding, serving a greater purpose than simply evaluating performance.
An essential element of effective assessment is that specific, timely and clear feedback is provided to students.
This feedback is used by students to check their understanding and inform future learning goals.
Feedback can also be part of an iterative process built into a task (such as allowing students to submit drafts) in which feedback provided should be specific and forward focused.
Effective assessment practices guide
The guide provides practical advice for teachers and school leaders K–10.
It aims to:
- establish a consistent understanding of evidence-based assessment advice
- provide guidance on assessment design and implementation
- support the use of evidence-based assessment strategies
- guide effective data collection and analysis in assessment.
The guide can be used in many ways to support implementation of effective assessment. It is intended to serve as a reference point, to be used at point of need, and is not designed to be read from start to finish.
There are several tools within the guide to support teachers and/or school leaders implement and evaluate assessment practices.
Access the Effective assessment practices guide.
The following resources provide some examples of assessment practices within two key learning areas:
Stage 2 English: Learning Intentions and Success Criteria (LISC) (DOCX 330 KB).
Stage 2 English: Peer assessment and co-constructed success criteria (DOCX 326 KB).
Stage 3 Mathematics: Effective in-class questioning (DOCX 331 KB).
Purpose of resource
The Effective assessment practices guide provides advice for school leaders and teachers to enact and embed effective assessment practices in formative and summative assessment. The guide includes content on developing assessment items, consistent teacher judgement, formative assessment practices such as Learning Intentions and Success Criteria (LISC) and effective feedback, and the use of data to inform practice.
Target audience
The audience for this resource is school principals, executive teams and teaching staff.
When and how to use
The release of syllabuses provide schools with an opportunity to reflect on the effectiveness of existing school-based assessment practices. This resource can be used by schools to support assessment processes to enhance curriculum implementation. Tools are provided within the guide to support school leaders to reflect upon and evaluate assessment practices.
Research base
This resource was developed by Curriculum and Reform.
The research base used was NESA’s NSW Curriculum, the department’s What works best: 2020 update and What works best in practice.
Contact
Email questions, comments and feedback about this resource to contactcurriculumreform@det.nsw.edu.au using the subject line ‘Effective assessment practices’.
Alignment to system priorities and/or needs
- Policy library – School excellence
- Curriculum planning and programming, assessing and reporting to parents K-12
- Implementation document for Curriculum planning and programming, assessing and reporting to parents K-12 policy
Alignment to School Excellence Framework
The importance of effective assessment practices and consistent teacher judgement are key messages in the School Excellence Framework (SEF).
In schools that excel, consistent school-wide practices for assessment are used to monitor, plan and report on student learning across the curriculum. Formative assessment is integrated into teaching practice in every classroom (SEF Excelling statement - Learning Domain - Assessment).
Alignment to Australian Professional Standards for Teachers
Effective assessment practices are a focus area of professional practice in the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers:
- Standard 5.1 – Assess student learning – 5.1.2, 5.1.3, 5.1.4
- Standard 5.2 – Provide feedback to students on their learning – 5.2.2, 5.2.3, 5.2.4
Created/last updated: June 2024
To be reviewed: December 2024
Resources
Centre for Educational Statistics and Evaluation (CESE) reports
What works best: 2020 update and What works best in practice – Chapter 5 targets assessment, Chapter 4 the use of data to inform practice and Chapter 3 targets effective feedback.
Re-assessing assessment (2015) – draws on research evidence about the nature and importance of effective assessment.
Australian Institute for Teaching School and School Leadership (AITSL)
Illustrations of practice: Standard 5.1: Assess student learning: Focus area in action. Australian Institute for Teaching School and School Leadership Limited (AITSL).
Illustrations of practice: Standard 5.2: Provide feedback to students on their learning: Focus area in action. Australian Institute for Teaching School and School Leadership Limited (AITSL).
Supporting students
Adjustments to teaching and learning – Students with disability – Adjustments enable students with disability and additional learning and support needs access to syllabus outcomes and content on the same basis as their peers.
Assessing EAL/D learners – Differentiating assessment through scaffolded support in the learning of language to support access to curriculum content.
Assess and identify – High potential and gifted education – Assess and identify the specific learning needs of all high potential, gifted and highly gifted students.
Consistent teacher judgement – Provides advice to strengthen knowledge and understanding of consistent teacher judgement and moderation practices.
Policy and guidance
Policy and guidance – Directing you to policy and guidance related to assessment including the national assessment program, Stages 5 and 6 Record of School Achievement (RoSA) and Stage 6 monitoring advice.
Assessment and reporting – Guidance provided by the NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) covering assessment principles; formative and summative assessment; evidence and feedback; and reporting and using grades.