Assessment Literacy

Abstract

Assessment literacy (AL), generally, concerns the capability of educators to effectively use assessment to the benefit of students and themselves. Buoyed by advances in understanding of the potential positive effects of assessment practices (e.g. formative feedback); increasing pervasiveness of high-profile, accountability-oriented assessment in schools; and persistent concerns that educators do not carry sufficient proficiency with assessment, AL has seen great gains in attention over the last two decades. While early notions of AL primarily concerned educators’ training in educational measurement and ability to work with standardised tests, contemporary consideration of AL has expanded to incorporate assessment that is more directly grounded in everyday classroom activities. Common components of AL conceptions include anticipation of the evidence of student learning that will be provided by a developed or selected assessment task; an ability to score and interpret assessment results and use them to drive important decisions; and elements of fairness and ethical responsibilities. Long viewed through the lens of sets of such competencies, recent development in thinking positions AL as a dynamic attribute that is subject to changes in a teacher’s social and professional environment as well as their own reflections on assessment and how it is a part of their professional identity. From the work of professional organisations to that of Stiggins, Brookhart, Popham, and others, AL has reached a prominence and maturity that permeates both research and practice in assessment. Following logical arguments for its importance, AL continues to prompt scholarly discussion about the essential characteristics of effective educators, how AL may be developed, how levels of AL may be assessed within individuals, and how it may be distinguished from other related concepts.