CIEAMail
Issue 35
July 2009

Supporting the Diploma - New case studies added to good practice guidance on the CIEA website

Two months ago the CIEA (a National Support Partner of the Diploma)
launched a new online Diploma Good Practice Information and Advice resource.

This resource has become so popular that members have asked for more examples of good practice, so we are pleased to announce two new case studies:

- Nottingham City Council - Future proofing capacity and
Assignment pro-formas
- North Hertfordshire Consortium - A manual to aid delivery

Existing case studies include:

- Tamworth Consortium - Management structure case study and Conducting assessments case study

- Stoke-on-Trent Consortium- Dipfolio - Centralising information

If you are delivering the Diploma and would like to share
assessment-related good practice with CIEA members please contact
Membership Manager, Richard Gott.

The CIEA also plans to host further training courses for consortia to
fulfil the requirements of the roles of Lead and Domain Assessor for the
diploma. If you would like to to register your interest to attend these
events, please email info@ciea.org.uk.

CIEA welcomes 80 new registered Early Years Foundation Stage Profile
Moderator members!

The CIEA is working with the Qualifications and Curriculum Development Agency (QCDA, formerly the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority,QCA), to accredit the EYFS Profile Moderator registration programme.

The purpose of the program is to enable key stakeholders (namely DCSF, local authorities, practitioners in Early Years settings and parents) to be confident that practitioner judgements are consistent with QCDA national standards of exemplification. The program also enables QCDA to be secure in the knowledge that local authority moderators have the skills and capabilities necessary to fulfil their statutory EYFS Profile Moderator role and responsibilities.

More about the EYFS Profile.

The CIEA independently validates the assessment process to ensure it is valid, reliable, robust, objective and fit-for-purpose. CIEA representatives observe and give feedback to QCDA on randomly sampled moderator registration events, as well as assessor training and standardising meetings. Following successful accreditation, the CIEA conducts a survey to gain feedback from successfully registered moderators.

Every newly registered moderator is invited to join the Institute and so far the CIEA has welcomed over 80 moderators. During the coming months these members will be surveyed as we are keen to ensure our tools and resources are relevant to this section of the assessment community.

Chartered Educational Assessor (CEA) training event review

Following the government's stated aim of allowing every school access to a Chartered Educational Assessor by 2020, the CIEA have received requests from members for further training and assessment events aimed at developing the skills of individuals involved in educational assessment to become
CEAs.

The first in a series of events took place on July 21st and 22nd at the Cumberland Hotel, Great Cumberland Place, London. There were fifteen delegates from Britain and South Africa, who hope to be added to the growing number of qualified CEAs to support the government's objective.

A review of the event can be found here

If you would like to be part of the next cohort of qualified Chartered Educational Assessors then please register your interest at mailto:info@ciea.org.uk and you will be notified of future training events.

Boost your career in assessment with a Master's qualification

In response to the need to strengthen the quality of internal assessment practice in schools, colleges and universities, the CIEA has been working with a network of leading universities to develop a Master's level qualification in educational assessment.

In September 2008, Bath Spa became the first university to offer the qualification. Over the next two years we will also be launching the Master's qualification in partnership with the following universities:

Durham University (October 2009)
The University of Leeds (January 2010)
The University of Warwick (January 2010)
Queens University Belfast (September 2010)
Swansea Metropolitan University (January 2011)

These qualifications count as part exemption towards CIEA's Chartered Educational Assessor in recognising your skills at the peak of professional assessment practice.

Click here to find out more.

CIEA to host Diploma Assessment workshop

The CIEA have been invited to the QCDAs 4th Delivering the Diploma Conference to be held in Birmingham on the 1st October 2009. The CIEA will host workshop D which focuses on the assessment
of the Diploma.

The CIEA is providing Lead and Domain Assessor training on a consortia basis. If you are interested in finding out more about the training then please email info@ciea.org.uk.

Ofqual publish contingency plan for the examinations system

Ofqual, the qualifications and examinations regulator in the UK, as well as regulators from Wales and Northern Ireland, associated awarding bodies and governments have recently published the joint crisis management for the examination system.

The plan outlines contingencies that would be implemented should there be a national crisis, such as swine flu. The plan complements that already put in place by awarding bodies to safeguard the interests of candidates whilst maintaining the integrity of the examinations system.Read more...

Upcoming

Download

• Delivering the Diploma conference
  1st October 2009
• Practice in Assessment
  On-going
• e-Assessment in Practice
  11th November 2009

• Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education
• Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy and Practice
• Assessment Update
• Educational Assessment
• Chronicle of Higher Education
• Educational Leadership
• Journal of Education