At Cambridge, we take pride in conducting principled assessments that meet the highest technical standards, ensuring learners from around the world have access to quality education.
At The Assessment Network our assessment CPD is built around these principles, and they are a vital component in both our introductory course into assessment, live online workshops and our bespoke learning solutions.
To explain these six principles, we've listed them below, along with a brief description of their purposes in assessment.
Validity
Traditional definitions of assessment validity describe it as the extent to which an assessment measures what it is intended to measure. However, in reality the same assessment could be seen as valid in one context and not valid in others (for example an intelligence test designed for adults would not be valid for children). For this reason, many people argue that it is not a test itself that is valid or not valid, but inferences that might be drawn on the basis of test results. So rather than asking, for example, whether a given intelligence test is valid or not, we should really be asking whether there is evidence to support inferences that we might want to draw from the test (e.g. that someone who has scored highly in the test is more intelligent than someone who has scored lower in the test). Another way to think about it is that validity refers to the extent to which a candidate’s performance on a test results in decisions about that candidate that are ‘correct’ (or more accurately, defensible).
Reliability
This concept refers to the extent to which the results of an assessment are consistent and replicable. So if an assessment is highly reliable it means that if a student took a different version of the test, or if a different examiner marked the test, they would get exactly the same result.
Fairness
An assessment is fair if there is no bias which might cause the assessment to discriminate against a group of individuals according to some trait (e.g. gender, disability) which is not the construct being assessed.
Standards
An approach to differentiating between different levels of performance for example by providing a grade. Setting and maintaining standards are important for ensuring public trust in assessments and qualifications, for example by making sure that grades are comparable over time.
Comparability
The degree to which the results from one assessment can be viewed as equivalent to results from a different assessment. This might include comparing equivalent grades between different examination boards, or results from one year with a previous year. Comparability is normally viewed as part of validity.
Practicality and Manageability
We are typically limited in the amount of time that we have to commit to assessing someone, and also have to make decisions about how to operationalise our assessments. We have to consider the trade-offs between validity, reliability and manageability and make professional judgements based on what we think is optimal within the constraints we work under.
If you want to access 101 definitions which will inform your assessment practice you can download our glossary for free.
Or if you want to go into more depth into the principles of assessment and how they could apply to your practice you can book onto A101: Introducing the Principles of Assessment.