Reliable analysis requires reliable data
To ensure confidence in the reliability of CASPA’s analysis, CASPA has a number of features built in to assist you with making your assessments, to assist in improving the consistency of your assessments, and to provide you with an external reference for moderation both within and between schools, as described below.
Tools to assist with making your assessments
For those schools that are not using a commercially-available package to assist them with the assessment of their pupils, CASPA’s extensive context-sensitive Help system contains a number of tools to assist with assessment and to provide access to the criteria applicable for assessment.
- QCA criteria for P Scale assessment:the QCA criteria for P Scale assessment are the ultimate reference against which assessment should be made; descriptors and guidance are included for the Core and Foundation subjects and the original criteria for the Personal and Social Development aspects are also included for those who wish to make use of them.
- Exemplification materials from Hampshire County Council: Hampshire County Council have kindly agreed to allow CASPA users to access a set of exemplification materials produced by them for English, Mathematics, Science, ICT and Personal and Social Development; whilst these exemplification materials do not include a hierarchical scheme of sub-divisions as is available with assessment packages such as B Squared and PIVATS, they do offer more detailed exemplification than the QCA criteria for assessment.
Tools to improve the consistency of assessment
CASPA includes simple reporting to allow you to ensure the consistency of assessment within your school via the use of CASPA’s Ranking Report; ranking reports are available for each of the aspects for which results can be recorded in CASPA. Ranking reports group together pupils scoring at the same outcome level for the specified subject, regardless of their age, their categories of need or the classes in which they are taught – the one thing all these pupils have in common is that they have been assessed at the same outcome level, which should in turn imply similar levels of ability.
A quick review of the report allows teachers to ask whether, from what they know about the pupils, they would expect them all to have been assessed at the same outcome level, and whether they would expect each of these pupils to have been assessed at a higher level than the group of pupils scoring at the next outcome level down, and lower than the group of pupils scoring at the next higher outcome level; if any individual pupil’s assessment appears inconsistent with their peers, this may point to the need for additional moderation of their assessment. For an example of CASPA’s ranking report, please click here.
Tools to assist with moderation of assessments
To assist with the moderation of assessments, both within schools and between schools, schools need access to examples of work that clearly demonstrate what pupils working at each level may achieve. West Sussex County Council have kingly agreed to allow CASPA users to access at set of portfolios of moderated work in multi-media format for English, Mathematics and ICT.
Examples of teacher-annotated work meeting each of the descriptor statements in QCA Criteria for P Scale Assessment for these subjects in the range P1(i) to NC Level 3 are available via CASPA’s built-in context-sensitive Help system.