Ensure the assessment criteria and process are made explicit and transparent to students (and parents)

Teachers should ensure students have read and understood the Assessment Criteria and have extensive experience using them for self and peer assessment in informal situations before conducting a planned assessment activity. Teachers should also have used these criteria for informal assessment and teaching purposes before they conduct any formal assessments so that they are very familiar with the criteria and the assessment process.

		To view Dr Penny McKay, Queensland University of Technology, Australia, talking about the purposes of assessment criteria.

A good way to achieve familiarity with the assessment criteria is through the mock SBA activities, where students are given the opportunity to assess fellow students' performances on SBA-style tasks using the SBA criteria. Students could also be asked to monitor their own oral English development and begin to assess it for themselves.

Schools should also make sure parents understand that the assessment criteria are a valuable source of feedback, not simply a score.