Records required to substantiate assessment reliability

Evidence considered for records required to substantiate assessment reliability

Its relevance to assessment reliability should be assessed against the affected jurisdiction, learner population and form of provision.

For decisions concerning assessment reliability, implementation should be organised around a decision that can be tested.

The principal risks in relation to the control are uncontrolled changes to assessment, inconsistent judgement between markers or locations, reasonable adjustment altering the assessed outcome, and weak assurance of authorship or performance. In the context of assessment reliability, the risks are interdependent; failure of one control may conceal or disable another.

For decisions concerning assessment reliability, a reliable record should identify what occurred, when it occurred, who was responsible, the authority for the action and any later correction.

Relevant evidence for records required to substantiate assessment reliability will normally include marking criteria and calibrated judgement, appeal and correction records, moderation and exception records, approval and change-control records, and assessment maps to learning outcomes. Evidence outside the relevant period or scope should be identified and given no more weight than its limitations permit. Across the defined scope, contradictory evidence should be investigated and resolved, not omitted from the record.

Application of the evidence to records required to substantiate assessment reliability

Care is required in drawing conclusions about assessment reliability. For the conclusion, reliability without validity produces consistent but potentially irrelevant results.

In the context of assessment reliability, accountability and effective correction both depend on a record that can be followed from evidence to decision. For the conclusion, the responsible body should be able to identify the evidence considered, the judgement made, the person or body authorised to make it and the action that followed.

• Review differential and anomalous results.
• Define the decision each assessment must support, with responsibility, scope and timing recorded.
• Retain evidence sufficient for review.
• Calibrate assessors, identifying the accountable function and affected scope.
• Moderate material variation before it is relied on for a decision with material effect.

Controls relevant to records required to substantiate assessment reliability

Implementation of assessment reliability can be tested without imposing unnecessary reporting. For the applicable expectation, the reviewer should specify mandatory fields, source ownership, access rights, retention and correction procedures. Test a sample from creation through use, amendment, reporting and disposal, including records created during disruption or by a delivery partner.

For assessment reliability, the final record on the matter should identify the applicable expectation, the relevant scope, the evidence examined, the sampling basis, material exceptions and the reason for the conclusion.

• Can records be retrieved throughout the required period?
• Is the record attributable?
• Are partner records subject to equivalent controls?
• Can an amendment be distinguished from the original?
• Are access rights proportionate?

Review criteria for records required to substantiate assessment reliability

Accountability for assessment reliability should follow decision-making authority.

Assessment reliability should provide valid and sufficiently consistent evidence that the stated learning outcomes have been achieved by the learner receiving the result. Across the defined scope, review should cover the stages at which learners receive information, provision, assessment, support and remedy.

No individual measure is sufficient to establish effective operation of the applicable expectation across the affected scope. A conclusion concerning assessment reliability should be revised when stronger evidence materially changes the assessment of implementation, outcome or risk.