Background

If you have made sure that your assessments are integral to your teaching and learning program and that they are educative and equally available to all students, without discrimination, then it is likely that your assessment of all your students is fair.

Consider how fair your assessments are

• Do your assessments closely match your lesson objectives?
• Have you defined the aspect of learning that you are assessing and not allowed other aspects to influence your judgements? For example, when assessing students' ability to write a narrative, have you made sure their handwriting and presentation have not influenced your judgements?
• Have you assessed your students in a way that does not give some students an advantage because of factors that are irrelevant to your lesson objectives?
• Have you collected a range of information (including anecdotal information) on students so that your judgements about their skills and understandings are reliable?

Consider feedback to you

• Have you determined what information you need to better understand your students' learning?
• Do you plan for the collection of evidence (within your lesson planning)?
• Do you anticipate how you will use the information to refine your lessons?
• Do you use assessments to identify the point at which a misconception or gap in learning has developed?
• Do you use assessments to identify the next skill or understanding a student or group of students needs to learn?

Consider feedback to you

There are several ways you can ensure your assessments are educative.

• Plan focused and specific learning aims and plan assessment strategies that are compatible with those learning aims. When focused learning and focused assessment are planned together the assessments are more likely to contribute to student learning.
• Use strategies that enable ongoing checking for understanding and accounting for every student's learning. These strategies should be clearly evident to students so they get regular information about how they are progressing.
• Provide feedback to students to support them in understanding what they currently know and can do, and what they need to learn next. Ensure your feedback is clear, purposeful, and meaningful; that it helps students connect prior knowledge with what they are currently learning; and it helps them establish short- and long-term goals.
• Provide feedback in a manner that supports and encourages learning, and extends students' thinking.
• Give students opportunities to provide feedback to you about aspects of their learning that they feel uncertain of, so that you can act on these concerns in a timely manner.