Principles of moderation of internal assessment

Abstract

Assessing students’ work and awarding a mark requires human judgement. For example, two people assessing the same piece of work may disagree on whether a skill has been demonstrated to a particular level or whether a student’s written answer is clear. Or, a person may mark and then re-mark a piece of work at a different time and make slightly different judgements.

While it is possible to reduce differences between and within individual assessors with practice, experience and training, processes need to be in place to ensure that assessment decisions are valid, reliable, fair and consistent with national standards.For this reason the moderation of internal assessments takes place to ensure that assessment decisions are in line with required standards.

How to cite

Billington, L et al (2009). Principles of moderation of internal assessment, Manchester: AQA Centre for Education Research and Policy.

Keywords

• Transparency