Writing on marking and assessment
What we are learning about marking, assessment and using AI in schools without giving up professional judgement.
How to evaluate if an Edtech tool is ready for school rollout
A tool your teachers love can still fail a school rollout. Before any pilot, secondary and trust leaders should test two gates: can the people who carry the risk approve it, and will teachers keep choosing it?
AssessmentCan AI mark accurately? A framework for evaluating AI marking
There is no single meaningful percentage that answers whether AI can mark accurately. A credible answer depends on the assessment being marked, the benchmark used, the way agreement is measured, and the decision the school is actually trying to make.
- AI in schools
Aligning AI Marking with UK Curriculum Standards
How AI marking fits with AQA, Edexcel and OCR mark schemes: the difference between points-based and levels-based marking, what the Ofqual and DfE rules actually require, and why the teacher remains the marker.
- Assessment
AQA GCSE Geography Paper 1: Complete Teacher Breakdown + Tips
What is on AQA GCSE Geography Paper 1: the three sections, how the 88 marks are distributed, which topics are compulsory and which are chosen, and what is worth drilling with a class before the exam.
- Marking practice
How to Mark Student Work Using ChatGPT
A practical guide to marking with ChatGPT: how to set it up, the prompts that produce useful feedback rather than vague praise, what to check before anything reaches a student, and where a general-purpose chatbot runs out of road.
Assessment terms explained
Plain-English definitions of the vocabulary these posts use.
- AI markingAI marking is the use of artificial intelligence to assess student work against defined criteria - a mark scheme or a teacher's own marking guidelines - and to draft marks and feedback for a teacher to review.
- Assessment for learningAssessment for learning is the practice of using evidence of what students currently understand to decide what to teach next, and to help students see what they need to do to improve.
- Assessment objectivesAssessment objectives are the categories of skill a qualification tests - commonly labelled AO1, AO2 and AO3 - each carrying a defined share of the available marks.
- Comparative judgementComparative judgement is an assessment method in which markers repeatedly choose the better of two pieces of work, and those paired decisions are combined statistically into a rank order.
- Criterion-referenced assessmentCriterion-referenced assessment judges work against defined standards of what a student should know or be able to do, rather than against how other students performed.
- ExemplarAn exemplar is a piece of work - often a real student answer - presented with its marks and commentary to show what a particular standard looks like in practice.
See it mark a real answer
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