Developing assessment tasks

Introduction
In the last edition of CURRICULUM SUPPORT (HSIE), Vol. 5, No. 1, an article entitled Designing an assessment program for the new HSC was published in the HSC supplement, page 15.

While the Board does not require any changes to internal HSC assessment processes until 2003, this article provides some ideas on how teachers can begin to design assessment tasks based on a standards referenced approach. It is taken as given that a school subject assessment program has been established which meets the Board of Studies requirements for components and weightings.

Examples of assessment programs and tasks can be viewed on the Board of Studies web site in the HSIE support documents.

Step 1: Refer to the school subject assessment program
This first step is to check the type of task, the topics it refers to, when the task will occur and the weighting allocated. Although not required by the Board, school programs are likely also to have the outcomes to be addressed in each task as a way of ensuring that the full range of outcomes is covered.

One of the challenges teachers are facing is that, with a small number of tasks (3-5), each task is attempting to address a number of outcomes. As a result, tasks are often multifaceted and the associated marking guidelines sometimes complex. Over-assessing by way of too many tasks is not the only form of over assessment. Too many outcomes per task is another.

It is important to plan an assessment program so that each task is used to maximum effect but has a small number of outcomes and a minimum number of components. One way to deal with this matter is to acknowledge the breadth of outcomes tested in the half-yearly and trial examinations. The remaining three or four tasks need only cover those outcomes not included, or those that need to be emphasised. Dealing with fewer outcomes per task makes the assessment process more manageable.

Step 2: Linking outcomes and subject matter
Outcomes drive both teaching and assessment. They are the focus of all student learning activities and the focus of both school assessment and HSC examinations. Outcomes make the link between what is taught and what is assessed. This link is good news for students. They can be confident about what is to be taught, because syllabuses are explicit about outcomes and subject matter, and confident about what will be assessed, because school assessment and HSC examinations are based on the same outcomes and subject matter as the teaching.

Before an assessment task is designed, clear links between outcomes and subject matter need to be determined. In HSIE subjects, outcomes in the Preliminary and the HSC courses are mostly repeated in two or more topics. Some outcomes may need to be assessed later in a course, when students have been able to study a number of topics related to a particular outcome. Careful decisions on this matter may also help to refine the number of outcomes being assessed in any one assessment task.

Step 3: Designing the task
Teachers have been writing assessment tasks for years, and subject department files are full of those that have worked best in the past. What is required for the new HSC is a stronger focus on good assessment practices, explicit links to outcomes and a marking scheme that expresses the standards inherent in the syllabus.

The following questions will assist teachers to develop a task and to evaluate how well they have done this.

• Is the task integral to the overall teaching and learning program?
• Has the task a direct link with syllabus outcomes?
• Is the task explicit about what students are required to do?
• Does the task meet the principles of validity, reliability, fairness and equity?
• Is the task time-efficient and manageable?
• Does the task include clear and explicit criteria for making judgements about student achievement?

When the task is developed you may find that it looks good but doesn’t fully include all the outcomes chosen. The task could be changed to accommodate all the desired outcomes or, depending on whether the omitted outcomes are assessed in other tasks, they could be taken out of this task. The realisation that not all of the outcomes that were intended for the task can be achieved needs to be checked against the subject assessment program before the final design of the task is decided.

Step 4: Using marking criteria or assessment rubrics
The specimen papers for the new HSC indicate that, for complex and essay-type questions, the students will be told the criteria for marking their responses through a rubric at the beginning of the question or section of the examination, for example:

This is a change for students and teachers. In the past, it has been easier to mark students’ work when the task is large and open-ended. Answers to questions which basically say “Tell me everything you know about” an ancient society, or the business environment, make it easy to rank students, but these questions can be a great frustration to the students. They ask themselves: “What is being tested? What importance does the assessor put on the various parts that I can include? Will the teacher like the plan I have for writing this essay?”

Students want to know how judgements about their work will be made. What are they going to be marked on? These are the assessment rubrics that the Board of Studies has included in the specimen papers.

The marking criteria need to reflect the outcomes being tested, be defined by the person setting the task and made explicit to the students.

Step 5: The marking guidelines
Essays, extended responses and performance tasks will require the development of marking guidelines that reward students who display higher levels of performance. Before marking students’ work, teachers should decide what students need to know and do to get the marks available for the task. Ideally, the marking guidelines need to be developed at the
same time as the task.

Large, multifaceted tasks that address many outcomes usually lead to a single marking scheme with various levels of achievement. Each level is a broad statement that amalgamates the assessment criteria and sets a range of marks. To apply these guidelines teachers have to make decisions using holistic judgements across a range of criteria to decide on the level of achievement, and then to allocate a mark within this level.

Another type of marking guideline provides explicit statements for each element of the criteria and
combines them into a single marking guideline with levels of achievement. Again, teachers have to
make on-balance judgements when different elements of the criteria are met at different levels of the marking guideline. Students do not always produce a response that fits neatly into only one level of these composite marking guidelines. In these instances, teachers need to be open to amending the marking guidelines to accommodate different student responses.

Another way to develop marking guidelines could be to allocate marks to different parts of the criteria and develop several marking guidelines, one for each criterion or combination of criteria. This approach is more time consuming to develop, but allocating marks is faster, as it is more obvious, whether or not, and to what extent, a student’s work matches the various marks available.

It is desirable, when designing the task, to develop the marking guidelines at the same time. The development of the task and the marking guidelines is interactive. Maintaining a holistic view of the
relationship: outcomes – task – marking criteria – marking guidelines will help teachers achieve
standards-referenced assessment practices.

Step 6: Reviewing the task instructions
Now that the task is clear and the marking guidelines have been decided, the instructions to
students need to be reviewed. Make sure these are clear and include the assessment criteria, where appropriate.

It is important to consider in advance what feedback you will be giving students. It may be
possible to expand feedback to include peer assessment where oral or practical work presentations are made, as long as it is in relation to the established criteria.

John Gore
CEO, HSIE