Valid assessment is about fairness
What my 8 year old daughter understands about assessment that NZQA don't
“But how are they going to use their imaginations?”
That was the question my 8 year old daughter had when she overheard my description of the changes in assessment conditions for the NCEA writing assessment, changes which make it a locked down, time bound, solo pursuit.
It’s an insightful question isn’t it. What it speaks to, I think, is the relationship between fairness and validity - the latter a concept NZQA are obsessed by. Fair enough. They are responsible for the national school leaver qualification, after all.
The ‘person-plus’
My daughter’s question made me think about David Perkins and his description of learners as a ‘person-plus’, with ‘plus’ being the resources they have at their disposal that help them to be successful. This is logical - we all draw on the things around us to help us do things well. However, Perkins argues that schools “mount a consistent campaign to make the ‘person-plus’ a ‘person-solo’”, and this spills over into how we conceptualise assessment. Perkins says
“the target performance is typically ‘person plus paper and pencil’. And pencil and paper are conceived not so much as thinking aids as a hopper into which the person-solo can pour concrete evidence of achievement.”
Fairness means a learner can access the ‘plus’
Can assessment be fair if it deprives a kid of access to the ‘plus’? Resources are more than the pen and paper at their disposal, or their capacity to cram. Call me delusional if you want, but I think resources include things such as
Imagination
Freedom from stress
Sufficient time to think
I’m sure you could add to that list.
No ‘plus’, no fairness = not equitable, not valid
Without access to these, there is no way we can say the assessment is fair - they’re essential resources anyone needs to write well. Accordingly, there is no way we can say the assessment is valid when it strips most kids of access to those resources.
The Ministry of Education wants education to be equitable. Given the distorting effect NCEA has on teaching and learning in secondary schools, is this approach likely to promote equity?
Of course not.
A ‘person-solo’ approach to assessment favours something, but it ain’t equity.