Involvement in assessment

At the start of the academic year, Liz, as the vice-principal at the college with responsibility for assessment, invites her heads of faculty to a meeting to discuss assessment for the forthcoming year. She has checked the faculties' records are up to date and that the assessment policy is still fit for purpose. She asks Brian, the lead internal verifier (IV) if he is happy with the processes the college is using and whether there have been changes to specifications since the team last met. If none, she checks everyone knows the nature and timing of the tasks for the coming year. If there are to be changes, she asks that the policy and procedures are followed and quality assurance processes are put in place. If anyone is to make any changes to task designs she arranges a meeting with the appropriate staff to check that the procedures have been followed. She uses the meeting also to ensure that appropriate staffs are in place and to elicit and gauge any requests for training or support. She will have set monies aside to provide the necessary CPD for all members of staff.

Liz then checks how each faculty will inform staff and learners of the forthcoming assessments throughout the year and for any evaluations of assessments since the last meeting. She will study these to ensure they are fit for purpose and appropriate to the context in which they take place. She works closely with Brian, the lead IV to ensure that processes for the assessing of learners' work are in place. Brian will submit his report to this team of senior assessors. Liz will then agree a timetable with Brian and the other faculty heads to scrutinise the faculty's standardisation procedures. She will also ask for appropriate samples of work that have been moderated and verified. She follows this with collecting the up-to-date record of sampling activities and verification records. These will be scrutinised, and where she has some concerns, she will ask a faculty head to explain the decisions to her.

Liz will now ask to see each faculty's tracking and learner progress documentation to ensure that support is being given to staff and learners who need it. She will ask to see each faculty's analysis of the assessment tasks to ensure the tasks adhere to the principles of reliability and validity. Once she has digested these reports, she will report back to each team about its processes and keep a copy for her records, ensuring that faculties have acted on her recommendations. She also asks to see that the appropriate guidelines for feedback to learners are being followed according to the college guidelines and procedures. She will expect to see effectively challenging feedback to learners in the form of goal setting. Finally, she will collate these reports and make them available to internal and external stakeholders, including awarding bodies and employers.

In completing these procedures, Liz will reflect on her own performance and seek feedback from both Brian and from the external verifier (EV) that her procedures are supporting the assessment teams. If they are not, she will change any procedures which are not working effectively by agreeing ways the process could be improved with the faculty heads. She will share with other senior members of the assessment teams any feedback she receives from third parties, so that everyone is aware of what they are doing and why they are doing it. This will form the basis of her report to the rest of the senior management team regarding changes to practice or reasons for keeping the agreed procedures.

The process Liz has instituted will help all members of the separate assessment teams to plan their assessments carefully over the coming year for the benefit of learners. She will have provided effective leadership to the teams and allowed faculty heads to share in the process and model it for their own teams. Information will have been shared across the teams for their benefit, but more importantly, for the benefit of the learners. The members of the assessment teams will be aware of what is happening, the process will be transparent and all assessors will feel supported by the system and not at odds with it. Everyone will be in a position to justify his or her actions when the EV pays a visit.

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