In the news
The role of assessment in the National Curriculum has been the hot topic in the educational press recently. 
In December, IPPR produced a report stating that regular teacher assessments of pupils’ work should replace the testing of pupils aged 11 and 14 (bbc article).
This month the Gilbert Review said that England’s school tests and exam league tables should be changed radically as part of a drive to put more focus on individual pupils’ progress. (bbc article)
Then it was announced at the BETT show that the KS3 ICT online test was no longer to be statutory (bbc article).
So what role will assessment play in the future of our education system?

Can we assess it?  Yes we can!
It seems that we are moving away from high stakes summative assessment of learning to ongoing assessment for learning.  We need a system which conforms more to the needs of the learner, rather than the learner to the system.  Did you know that Bob the Builder is based on effective uses of assessment for learning?  If not download Bob’s guide to A4L.

Practical examples of A4L in KS3 ICT
I’m sure that most teachers, students and parents would agree that personalising the curriculum is a good idea in principle.  However, how can we enable learners to play a more active role in how they are assessed?
A basic, but fundamental idea is to ensure that students have a clear understanding of lesson aims and objectives.  We show students a welcome presentation at the start of the lesson to explain what it will be about.  If an activity is to be assessed we also show the marking criteria (slide 3)  and how it relates to NC levels.
It is also very important to give students clear instructions on what work they will need to produce to show evidence of a specific level such as in this excel activity.
When students have completed the first draft of a product, they can receive not only teacher, but peer and self evaluation.  However, peer and self assessment only works with clear guidance such as this checksheet.
In order to give our students an overall picture of their progress we have created an assessment grid   that either they or the teacher can fill in at the end of each unit.  We also use a level table with targets specific to the unit, so that students can see why they achieved a certain level and what to do to improve.

E-assessment, vision or reality?
According to a recent futurelab report  ‘The issue for e-assessment is not if it will happen, but rather, what, when and how it will happen.’  The Government’s goal of producing an online KS3 ICT test that marks itself was a very ambitious goal.  The application that has been produced to do the job is very sophisticated and cost over £20 million to develop.  However, can a computer identify a learner’s creativity and whether what they have produced has a clear sense of audience and purpose?
This short presentation explores why we need e-assessment and what forms it could take.

Examples of basic e-assessment
E-assessment tools such as Hot Potatoes and Blockbusters can be used to quickly create a variety of self marking activities.  These are very useful to either refresh learners’ knowledge or to identify areas that require more work.
Yacapaca has some very good baseline tests specifically written for KS3 ICT.  The students can choose which level they wish to attempt and give themselves a target of how many to get right.  It also has an eportfolio feature in which students can submit work to their teacher to be marked.  See flash demo
Joint Assessment Systems also enables students to submit work to be marked.  It also enables students to assess their own work by unit specific criteria and then the teacher can use the same criteria for their feedback.  From this a complex picture can be produced of each individual learner’s strengths and areas for improvement. See flash demo. 

Additional Resources
Assessment for learning: Beyond the black box, QCA
Interview with Prof. Paul Black on A4L, GTC
Futures, Meeting the Challenge, QCA
KS3 ICT SoW, Notre Dame
Biography of Bob the Builder, Wikipedia
Bob the Builder images to print out and colour in, BBC