ABSTRACT
International debates surrounding school-based assessments versus standardised examinations have been well documented within this journal (e.g., MacCann and Stanley 2010; Collins, Reiss, and Stobart 2010; Wyatt-Smith, Klenowski, and Gunn 2010). Issues raised in these articles are drawn together here by considering teacher-marked assessment of common assessment tasks as this is experienced by middle school teachers involved in a new assessment context. The research examines teacher participation in the practice of standards-based assessment as the teachers discuss and negotiate judgements made on student assessment tasks in the context of synchronous online moderation. The online medium provided an opportunity for teachers from diverse locations to gather. The connectivity of the meeting and the mediation of the online context as participants negotiated between the intended policy and their enacted practice were found to be important factors in the development of an assessor identity in the practice of standards-based assessment. The discussion focuses on the conflicts and uncertainties surrounding what it means to
re die
be a teacher in a new assessment context through a sociocultural lens of becoming (Lave and Wenger 1991).
