Assessment and Computing - A Practical Guide to Teaching Computing and ICT in the Secondary School - page 69

needs to be a holistic process, founded in planning and developing from and for
the needs of the individual learners.
The majority of the ideas in this chapter will focus on the ideas embedded in the
practice of Assessment for Learning (AfL), in that the intention is to enhance the
learner's progress in the subject. However, as teachers must also be accountable,
there is a need for the production of summative (assessment of learning) data.
If you know where you are heading, but don't know where you started from or
have no means to determine where you are then you are truly lost.
If you know where you started from and, having planned your route, can
measure your progress, you know exactly where you are and where you need
to go next.
Anon
Task 4.1
Parents' evening
The Computing Subject Leader has asked a trainee Computing teacher to produce
some notes for feedback on the performance of pupils in her class, for use at a
parents' evening. What assessment evidence might she use to compile the notes?
WHAT IS PROBLEMATIC ABOUT ASSESSMENT?
Assessment in Computing is made particularly complicated by the fact that the
'new' National Curriculum offers no guidance on how the subject should be
assessed. However, we can look at practice in the past and try to learn from this.
Strategies for assessing Computing will develop and improve over time, and you
should endeavour to keep up-to-date and even contribute to this development.
What does Ofsted say about assessment in Computing?
Ofsted (Office for Standards in Education) is the organisation in England that
inspects standards in schools, HMI (Her Majesty's Inspectors) support this work
and provide interpretation and national guidance based on the findings. Computing
is a new subject in the Curriculum for England. Therefore, no reports from Ofsted/
HMI, specifically on this subject, are available at this point in time, but there are
reports on its predecessor, 'ICT', which we should take note of.
Ofsted (HMI, 2004, 2005, 2009, 2011) are critical of assessment practice in many
subjects, but in ICT in particular. They highlight that there was a need to 'improve
the use of assessment of pupils' progress in ICT, ensuring that pupils know how
well they are doing and what they should do to move on to the next level' (HMI,
2011, p. 8). They also state that, 'In some schools, assessment of students' attainment
at the end of Key Stage 3 was inaccurate and frequently overgenerous' (HMI, 2011,
p. 21).
Later in the same report they also express concerns that:
The most prevalent weaknesses were the absence of any systematic monitoring
or assessment of the progress of students in ICT together with the lack of any
evaluation of the contribution of ICT to improving outcomes. In some cases,
low ICT achievement in Key Stage 3 held back students from making better use