Assessment Standards Manifesto
In November 2007, ASKe hosted ‘Designing assessment in the 21st Century’ an assessment colloquium looking at the current state of assessment and ways in which practice might be improved in response to conclusions put forward by the Burgess Report.
The event brought together the ASKe International Advisory Group (a group of seven world-class experts on assessment) and 30 national experts, who have since been named the ‘Weston Manor Group’.
Learners who engage in assessment are entitled to fair and transparent assessment practices and standards. However, it is the view of the Weston Manor Group that assessment standards reside in the practices of academic and professional communities and in the nature and level of tasks in which learners engage, rather than being fully describable in statements of learning outcomes or marking criteria.
The role of assessment standards is twofold: firstly to support the learning process by guiding the appropriate design of assessment tasks and how they are undertaken, and the provision of feedback; secondly to provide benchmarks to guide the assessment of learning achieved. Currently, the Weston Manor Group believes, there is an over-emphasis on the measurement of learning often at the expense of assessment for learning.
Building on a growing consensus of informed expertise, the Weston Manor Group sought to address these concerns by drafting a manifesto for change. This manifesto is offered with a view to stimulating debate across the sector and, more importantly, as a first step towards bringing about necessary changes in policy and practice.
Download the Manifesto (830KB/ PDF)
You can become a signatory to the manifesto using this link:
www.doodle.ch/participation.html?pollId=xaipiazth97cyvh5
If you would like to know more about the backround arguments behind the manifesto, please read:
Price, M., O’Donovan, B., Rust, C. & Carroll, J (2008), 'Assessment
standards: a manifesto for change', Brookes eJournal of Learning and Teaching, Vol.2, No. 3. (Online December 2008) Available at:
http://bejlt.brookes.ac.uk/article/assessment_standards_a_manifesto_for_change
