Efficient and effective approaches to quality assurance and moderation will require building on local practices, developing working approaches across education authorities and partners and linking this work at a national level.
National approaches will include opportunities for collaboration both virtual (for example, through Glow and SQA Academy) and face-to-face (for example, through national network groups and professional development workshops).
Features of quality assurance and moderation in assessment 3 to 18
Quality assurance and moderation:
- is robust and rigorous and gives confidence in teachers' judgements.
- provides the opportunity for teachers to collaborate and participate in professional dialogue and collegiate working.
- ensures fairness to all children and young people and is open and transparent to all staff, parents and learners.
- is fit for purpose and proportionate with processes articulating across stages and sectors
- fosters mutual trust, openness to different ideas and respect for the different skills, experience and understanding that all participants bring.
- ensures that learning, teaching and assessment is planned in a coherent way and that assessment is valid and reliable.
- provides opportunities for feedback and planning for improvement.
- is manageable and the methods used are accessible and easily arranged with ongoing professional dialogue as a key component.
- promotes learner engagement through learners discussing criteria, sharing and reviewing samples of their work and identifying strategies they found helpful to their learning.
- promotes capacity building of assessment expertise, professional learning and development and quality improvement as integral to quality assurance processes.
Embedded in the values and principles of Curriculum for Excellence
Quality assurance and moderation has to strike the right balance between effort and sustainability by having approaches across 3 to 18 that are appropriate to the ages and stages of learners and are proportionate.
Proportionality would apply within the curriculum at particular stages, for example focusing on literacy, numeracy and health and wellbeing as key components of the broad general education and the common responsibility of all teachers. Where we have high stakes assessment, for example for qualifications, quality assurance and verification will naturally focus on ensuring that national standards have been applied across Scotland. SQA will of course support centres by providing clear and accessible exemplification to help staff to understand standards and to apply those national standards locally. Further detailed guidance in respect of these will be developed and be published by SQA in relation to new and revised qualifications.
At other stages and for other ages, quality assurance might emphasise the importance of planning engaging and exciting learning experiences that will focus on achieving the standards and expectations defined through the experiences and outcomes. The curriculum levels and the three dimensional approach to assessment (breadth, challenge and application of learning, including higher order thinking skills) will be used to inform expectations and the planning of coherent approaches to learning, teaching and assessment.
Quality assurance and moderation is particularly important at points of transition in order to share standards and expectations across sectors and providers. This will ensure confidence in assessment judgements and reliability of information so that children and young people can experience continuity and progression in their learning.
Quality assurance needs to be flexible: what it looks like will depend on the context of individual schools and education authority and will build on existing effective practices. In developing systematic approaches to the quality assurance and moderation of assessment across Scotland, support structures have to be put in place so that local and national practices are fully aligned and everyone is clear about roles and responsibilities.
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