When teacher assessment was introduced, teachers were horrified. There were probably two reasons for this. First, some schools attempted to tack an assessment system on to existing classroom practice without realising that work had to be planned with assessment in mind. Second, some took the whole thing a bit too seriously - every teacher tried to assess everything and to provide supporting evidence for it all.

The first problem began to be solved when teachers started to plan with assessment in mind. The result was greater clarity, with lessons planned according to clearly defined “learning objectives”. The process was helped immeasurably by the replacement of bite-sized statements of attainment by level descriptions. The notion of judging “best fit” within a level description did much to make classroom assessment manageable.

The School Curriculum and Assessment Authority, now the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA), has consistently urged a realistic approach to classroom assessment, and backed up its arguments with supportive documents.

The key concept promoted by QCA in its latest booklet, Teacher Assessment in Key Stage 2, is that “assessment should inform planning”. If it doesn’t, if the results of assessment are not clear enough to affect the teacher’s decisions about what to do next, then the exercise is pointless. The 25-page document concludes: “Planning and assessment are integral to successful teaching. Planning identifies learning objectives, and assessment reveals how far children have acquired learning, which in turn determines future planning. ”

But teachers want more than this. They want to know what they are actually supposed to do. Does classroom assessment mean setting little tests? Or is it more a matter of “catching” evidence of attainment during the cut and thrust of ordinary lessons? There are organisational questions, too. For example, what is the division of responsibility between the assessment co-ordinator and the subject co-ordinators? What is the mechanism which picks up assessment data and feeds it into the planning process? It is these questions the booklet tries to answer.

It advocates a school policy that encompasses long, medium and short-term planning, within the framework of the statement of aims; assessment should inform planning at all three of these levels. But the individual teacher is probably most worried about immediate, day-to-day assessment. QCA therefore concentrates on showing how assessment can be brought to bear on short and medium-term planning.

This is done by using real classroom examples. There are four pages of samples of medium-term planning, each of which shows how broad headings can be taken from the long-term plans and broken down into learning objectives for the medium term. Section two of the booklet goes on to show how these medium-term learning objectives can in turn be broken down further into short-term plans. There are eight examples of lessons, across both age range and the curriculum, each of which has six key features: learning objectives; activity; assessment; evidence of attainment; recording; and next steps.

Assessment activities are provided in each case, together with an explanation of what constitutes evidence of attainment, and a note on how it could be recorded.

The examples are chosen to show that there is more than one approach to assessment. The lesson on cartwheels, for example, explains that assessment can be carried out by teacher observation; by the children working in pairs, discussing their progress and making judgments about what they need to do next; and by children commenting on their own and others’ performance.

The evidence of attainment is shown by the extent to which each child has made progress, and is recorded by simple notes. The booklet continues with a page on marking which could form the core of any school’s marking policy.

The final part of the booklet is about the management of assessment. This consists largely of a detailed table showing how the responsibility for assessment breaks down between head, assessment co-ordinator, subject co-ordinator, class teacher and governing body.

SUGGESTED OUTLINE OF RESPONSIBILITY

Governors.

Know what assessment is, and how it is done. See evidence of this from time to time.

Head

Oversees the assessment policy and makes sure it has a prominent place in the school development plan. Makes sure that assessment happens.

Assessment co-ordinator

Puts the policy into practice. Makes sure it is manageable and effective, and teachers know how to do it. Provides support andor training.

Subject co-ordinator

Develops schemes of work which show clear learning objectives. Monitors continuity and progression, and marking.

Teacher

Plans each lesson with clear objectives. Makes classroom assessments against the learning objectives. Keeps records of attainment. Focuses on individual pupils.

Clearly, there are other ways of dividing responsibilities. By no means every school has an assessment co-ordinator, for example. In that case the work is usually shared between senior management and the subject co-ordinators.

This is a summary of the table in the QCA booklet, Teacher Assessment in Key Stage 2

WHAT THE TEACHERS SAY

“One starting point is the teacher’s intuitive response to how the lesson has gone” Bob Jelley, St Giles Junior, Warwicks “For moderation, co-ordinators are encouraged to use their non-contact time to build up their own portfolios of children’s work showing where the standards are and where there is progression” Pam Wells, Stanway Fiveways Primary, Colchester “At the beginning of a topic, say in history or RE, we do a ‘What do we know about this’ exercise with the pupils; then we do it again at the end” Julie Clift, Barny Dun Primary, Doncaster “I threw my weight behind a whole-school pro forma: a landscape A4 sheet with pupils’ names across the top and assessment criteria down the side. You won’t use it all the time - perhaps once a week, or at the end of a unit of work” bj “We’ve got away from making records of every single thing. Providing people are trained and doing the job well they have to trust their judgments and not worry about evidence for everything” jc “The attitude now is that we know what the content is and what the standards are. Now we ask: are the expectations right? Are we challenging the pupils?”.

KEY POINTS ABOUT CLASSROOM ASSESSMENT

* Assessment can be done by discussion and questioning; by observation; by marking of classroom work; by specially devised tests; by self-assessment.

* Careful attention must be paid to medium-term planning. Get this right, and day to-day planning, with clear learning objectives, becomes much easier.

* Collection of “evidence of attainment” should not be a burden. The school needs just enough to back up the judgment of its professionals.

* “Process” assessment, which involves observing pupils as they think and work through their tasks, is as important as assessment of the finished work.

* Tools to help with moderation (within school and beyond) include portfolios of sample work, and exemplification material from QCA.

* Moderation should not be a time-consuming, highly detailed exercise. The notion of “best fit” should be kept in mind.

* Teacher assessment is formative. It lets children know how they are doing, and it helps the teacher to plan the next lesson or series of lessons.

* The school’s assessment policy should make clear how responsibilities are divided between governors, headteacher, co-ordinators and classroom teachers.

Based on QCA materials and headteachers’ comments