ABSTRACT
A strategy for managing and organizing assessment is a new idea for many education and training organizations. A number of colleges and schools have found that designing an assessment policy, and adopting a strategy to achieve it, enables them to respond to the increasingly complex demands which assessment places on them. Changes to assessment systems and practices have brought about extensive curriculum and organizational change. Funding for colleges is linked to learners’ achievements and this places demands on organizations to provide effective assessment at different stages. This is taking place in a context of larger class sizes, shorter programmes and increased competition between education and training institutions. Teachers and trainers are using a wider range of approaches to assessment across a much broader scope of learning outcomes than in the past. More learners progress between courses at different levels, or choose modules from different subject areas. Many schools, colleges and universities have franchise arrangements with other institutions, and teachers have to work with a range of awarding bodies. There are different procedures for verifying and moderating learners’ work and for assessing and recording achievement. A recent report from the Further Education Development Agency points out that:
‘The major challenge for… curriculum managers who are providing assessment opportunities on a vast spectrum of programmes with different assessment regimes, is to provide a coherent learning experience for all learners to recognize their prior learning experience and maximize access to assessment opportunities. A central issue is the development of a college assessment policy and a verification framework to ensure the quality of provision and access to fair assessment.’
(FEDA, 1995)