On Friday September 23-Saturday September 24, AISB in Bucharest, Romania hosted the 2nd Annual Assessment Summit with a focus on “Assessment for Learning.” There was a great range of sessions offered and I was often torn for having to choose. It is difficult to outline my key understandings for fear of making simplistic statements of practices you may already be doing and in turn trivialising the rich discussions that provoked wonderings and reflection, the kind that keeps your mind racing despite the pull of sleep (and joy of hotel blackout curtains).
As in the name of the summit the focus was on assessment for learning, so formative assessments was the common thread through each session. To paraphrase the keynote speaker, Fran Prolman, “It is important that we talk about formative assessments, because at this stage the patient is still alive and we can still help them. By the time they complete their summative, the patient is already dead.” By no means was she attempting to devalue the role of the summative, rather to highlight the importance, value and opportunity that lie in effective formative assessments.
As our school embarks on an assessment review this year, I’m sure we will have many opportunities to participate in rich discussions about assessment.
Key take-away:
Here is a link of some of the documentation shared at the conference:
