Principles for Fair Students Assesment Practices for Education on Canada.

Abstract

           The Principles for Fair Student Assessment Practices for Education in Canada contains a set of principles and related guidelines generally accepted by professional organizations as indicative of fair assessment practice within the Canadian educational context. Assessments depend on professional judgment; the principles and related guidelines presented in this document identify the issues to consider in exercising this professional judgment and in striving for the fair and equitable assessment of all students.          Assessment is broadly defined in the Principles as the process of collecting and interpreting information that can be used (i) to inform students, and their parents/guardians where applicable, about the progress they are making toward attaining the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and behaviors to be learned or acquired, and (ii) to inform the various personnel who make educational decisions (instructional, diagnostic, placement, promotion, graduation, curriculum planning, program development, policy about students. Principles and related guidelines are set out for both developers and users of assessments. Developers include people who construct assessment methods and people who set policies for particular assessment programs. Users include people who select and administer assessment methods, commission assessment development services, or make decisions on the basis of assessment results and findings. The roles may overlap, as when a teacher of instructor develops and administers an assessment instrument and then scores and interprets the students’ responses, of when a ministry of department of education of local school system commissions the development and implementation of an assessment program and scoring services and makes decisions on the basis of the assessment results.