Ensure the standardisation process is collaborative and interactive

The assessment tasks are designed as formal moments in the teaching programme at which the teacher can stand back and reflect on their implicit or explicit assumptions about individual students' capacities, compare those assumptions with careful analysis of examples of students' real performance, and then subject their judgments to explicit scrutiny and challenge or confirmation by others. In other words, the SBA component does not assume that the class teacher is totally objective and/or has no preconceived ideas or assumptions about a student's level. To the contrary, it seeks to make such assumptions explicit and open to discussion with fellow teachers.

This process starts by teachers in each school sharing ideas about all aspects of the assessment process, including

• discussing ideas for new tasks and ways to adapt/modify tasks for their own context
• talking about problems and finding ways to solve them
• looking at/listening to recordings of students in each other's classes doing presentations and holding group discussions
• helping each other review students' scores
• discussing problematic cases and areas of concern
• evaluating how each give feedback to students

All of these professional activities help teachers improve on their teaching, and prepare for carrying out SBA events with their class(es).

To view Mrs Christina Lee talking about how the teachers at each year level need to work as a unit.

At the end of S4 and S5 each group of teachers working at the same form level should meet together more formally with a sample of recordings of students from every class carrying out SBA tasks. Although only a 3-hour meeting, this interaction develops trustworthiness by providing teachers with the opportunity to

• share judgments and understanding of what it means to achieve a level 2 in Pronunciation, level 4 in Communication Strategies, etc.
• identify any areas where they may not be looking at tasks or performances in quite the same way
• talk through issues collegially until they can resolve any misunderstandings
• apply their revised understanding to more sample recordings of students doing SBA tasks
• satisfy themselves they all have a similar perception of what (for example) "some errors of sound clusters" or "appropriate but simple and formulaic turn-taking strategies" or "can present some relevant ideas sequentially with some links" looks like when their own students are doing it.
  
  
  

It is not necessary to have complete consensus; that is, teachers do not all need to agree to give identical marks; some variation within the range is to be expected. Trustworthiness comes more from the process of seeking agreement, justifying options and so on than from absolute agreement.

To view Prof Dylan Wiliam talking about the need for teachers to share their judgments with colleagues.

The more school-based assessment becomes part of the climate of the school, the less teachers need to be talking through what a 3 means or what a 5 means etc. because they will gradually internalise and share those kinds of standards. This within-the-school understanding and consensus-building grows over time as the principles and standards of this assessment become familiar to everyone, and as all teachers learn to trust themselves and their colleagues to conduct the system carefully and honestly. This is not "another meeting" intruding into teachers' time: it is fundamental to the larger-scale trustworthiness of the SBA; and it is a rich form of professional development from which many teachers gain tremendous personal benefit.

To view Dr Penny McKay talking about the purposes and benefits of the standardisation process and how it should be conducted.

After the school-based standardisation, the SBA coordinator may then take a sample of video/audio-recordings and Assessment Records to an inter-school meeting with other SBA coordinators, chaired by a group coordinator. The purpose of this meeting is for professional sharing of different schools' assessment processes and student samples in order to help teachers in very different schools better interpret the standards. The standardisation process used at the school level can be repeated with SBA coordinators from a number of schools. These meetings are also an opportunity to share ideas for new tasks, raise problems and find out if anyone else has encountered them and how they have solved them.

Scores need not be changed as a result of these inter-school meetings, but SBA coordinators will be asked to report back to the team in their own school. If it is apparent that a particular school's scores are markedly higher or lower as a whole than those from the other schools as a whole, the school team may wish to review their scores.