Assessment at Upper Secondary School:
Silenced Voices of Students in an Era of Reform
Lise Bird and Deborah Willis*



*Requests for reprints may be sent to Dr D. Willis, Education
Department, Victoria University, Box 600, Wellington, New Zealand.


Broadfoot (1989) has looked at assessment practices in historical context 
to consider implications of current educational reforms in British 
education on procedures for assessing pupils in school.  She has argued 
that there are four basic aims of assessment in education:  
1) to publicly identify different kinds of competence, 
2) to put limits on curriculum content, 
3) to expedite competition over social ranks in a hierarchically      
organised world of job structures (and social classes), and 
4)  to provide "control of individual [teacher and student] aspirations    
and frustration through the legitimation of apparently objective      
educational judgements" (Broadfoot, 1989, p. 1).
The operation of ideologically based discourse within debates on matters 
relating to all aspects of curriculum, learning and assessment has been 
well documented (e.g. Blackmore, 1988; Broadfoot, 1984, Codd ??).  In 
looking at educational reform in Britain, Broadfoot contrasted two 
different assessment discourses.  We will follow Broadfoot's lead in 
talking about two kinds of assessment as dichotomous in outlook and 
underlying philosophy, which we refer to as the technicist versus the 
educative.
Technicist Approaches to Assessment
Technicist assessment assumes that learning is linear involving the 
acquisition of discrete pre-determined pieces of information or clearly 
defined skills which permits measurement techniques to be pre-specified 
around a set of precisely stated objectives.  Assessment procedures are 
based on positivist assumptions whereby assessment is a value free activity 
that is able to make precise and objective judgements about the 
intellectual capacity of individuals.  Precisely because it is assumed that 
assessment entails the pre-specification of goals and that learning is 
linear:
'the administration of formal tests and examinations through procedures 
that are totally divorced from the educational process and setting to which 
they are supposed to relate' (Murphy and Torrance, 1988: 7).
Technicist views of assessment are founded on ideas of possessive 
individualism.  There is an assumption that individuals are the owners of 
their capabilities and should be free to operate in a society composed of 
other similarly free individuals (Moore, 1987).  This position is expressed 
through an empiricist approach to education.  Knowledge is seen as 
compartmentalisd, capable of being broken down into a series of separate 
pieces which can be measured quantitatively through the operation of 
positivist methods of assessment.  In Foucault's work on surveillance 
techniques of the modern state, he emphasised the importance of numbers and 
labels, of quantification as a means for identifying, sorting and 
controlling the disparate individual bodies of peoples in the subject 
population.  
Taken to an extreme, the technicist approach assumed that only learning 
that can be observed is worth having.   A failure to acknowledge the 
complexity of learning and teaching has led to the technicist development 
of linear models of learning that are primarily directed at achieving 
predetermined outcomes.  Assessment is seen as providing as useful 
'objective' means to report on such outcomes.  Typically these technicist 
methods (both normative and criterion referenced) are used to make 
selection and control decisions about learners.  
Educative Assessment
In contrast educative assessment reflects a complex view of learning, 
though there are different ideological paths within such assessment.  One 
traditional discourse is centred around the promotion of the individual and 
their learning needs (see for example Rogers, 1983; Watts and Bentley, 
1989).  A second path is concerned with learning in broader terms where 
individuals and their socio-political and historical context are 
intertwined.  Individual needs cannot be promoted without addressing 
broader issues such as assessment as a mechanism of social control (see for 
example Apple, 1979).  
Any attempt to describe the complex learning outlined above requires 
methods that reach both the process and product of learning.  Not 
surprisingly these are diverse.  However, it is possible to identify 

several main themes that characterise forms of educative school-based 
assessment.
* Attempts are made to assess a range of learning incorporating cognitive 
and affective and motivational aspects;
* The assessment used relates directly to course-work carried out thus 
forming a link between curriculum and assessment;  
* Students are involved in self-evaluations of their learning;
* A key purpose of assessment is the diagnosis of learning needs;
* Assessment takes account of the prior experiences both in terms of 
learning and wider cultural perspectives of all students.
Internal Assessment:  Naturally Educative?

Close examination of various forms of assessment reveal contrasting 
ideological positions.  Each type of assessment embodies very different 
perceptions about the nature of knowledge and the respective roles of 
teachers and learners as well as the purpose and forms of assessment.  
Broadfoot (1989) suggests that there is an underlying ethos of state 
control over individuals even in new assessment procedures which seem more 
flexible and "progressive".  She was particularly concerned about 
assessment which seems more likely to provide fuel for competition over 
resources than to enable students to maximise their learning at their own 
pace and with their own styles of learning.
Although external examinations and standardised tests are usually 
associated with technicist assessment it has been argued (Black, 1986; 
Murphy and Torrance, 1988) that internal assessment, despite providing an 
opportunity to fulfil an educative role (Blackmore, 1988) can sometimes 
operate to further reinforce the selection and control function of a 
technicist model of assessment.  This is characteristed by its timing which 
is typically carried out towards the end of a course or unit of work and 
its prodcedures and criteria that are shrouded in secrecy.  In addition 
technicist internal assessment yields results that are 'usually coded in a 
language of grades which gives (students) little constructive insight into 
the nature of their performance' (Murphy and Torrance, 1988 p. 14-15).  
Clearly information gainded in this way is unlikely to be of any diagnostic 
value to either the teacher or student.
Significantly all the alternative educative forms of assessment referred to 
by Blackmore (1988) are located within the classroom (e.g. pupil self-
assessment, profiling).  Each allows the participation of both students and 
teachers in the collection and interpretation of information about student 
learning.  
The present study looks at a particular case study of internal assessment, 
based on science at the fifth form level.  Most students in New Zealand sit 
a state examination for their fifth form subjects, called the "School 
Certificate".  A small percentage of schools in the country do, however, 
opt to teach "modular science", in which students are internally assessed 
over six modules of science including aspects of biology, chemistry and 
physics.  As part of a larger study, we examined students' reactions to 
modular science, in particular, the aspects of moderation and scaling which 
are used by the central New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA) to 
determine the distribution of grades for each school in science.  We were 
particularly interested in the ways that an internally assessed, 
modularised subject would both challenge and perhaps reproduce the 
technicist assessment assumptions of the state-controlled School 
Certificate Examination.
The Study
To investigate the relationships between assessment, motivation and 
learning in an internally assessed modular high school subject, we are 
conducting a year-long study of fifth form science.  In New Zealand fifth 
form is the year of a key external examination, the School Certificate, 
with national standards.  As an alternative to this examination for fifth 
form science subjects of general science, biology, physics or chemistry, 
some schools have an accredited programme of modules covering various 
aspects of science.  Most schools offer a range of modules, from which 
which students choose six for their assessment.  Some students also choose 
to do "double science", taking 12 modules in order to be equivalent to two 
School Certificate science subjects.

For this study we are spending time in one secondary school in a moderate-
sized NZ city over14 months.  Phase one of the study covered two modules at 
the end of 1991.  In Phase two we have covered modules at the beginning, 
middle and end of the 1992 year.  The school is in a mixed middle class and 
working class area of the city, with ethnic distributions of students in 
the school very similar to those in the general population.  There are 
approximately 25 students in each class we have observed.
Each of the two authors and an additional research assistant each 
experienced two modules as observer-participants, taking part in the 
laboratory work along with the students.  Each researcher tape-recorded 
parts of each class session to create an audio-record of teacher's 
explanations of key concepts as well as records of student work on 
laboratory work, when students were willing to have this recorded.  
Interviews were conducted both informally and formally with a sample of 
students in each module, and the teachers involved in the study.  Examples 
of assessment, including in-class tests, homework notes, written reports of 
experiments were collected, along with documentation from teachers such as 
their class plan for the module, handouts, etc.  In addition to the class 
test results and in-course assignment marks for each module, we also 
attained for each student in the study their scores on a competency-based 
"Science Certificate" used by the school as a way to provide a report of 
each student's competences in science in a presentation folder, and the 
results of a national "reference" test used by the NZQA as a means of 
monitoring national standards in modular science.  We also obtained the 
final School Certificate mark in relevant science subjects for each student 
at the end of each year.
Questionnaires were given out to students in each module, asking them to 
comment on aspects of each module which they perceived to be difficult or 
easy to undertstand, which parts most or least interesting.  We also asked 
students about their plans for future study of science at both secondary 
and post-secondary levels, about their consideration of science-related 
jobs or careers, and their interest, if any, in science in everyday life.  
The questionnaire also included the short form of the Approach to Study 
Inventory (Entwistle, 1988), a 20-item version of "Students' approach to 
learning" which has already been used with New Zealand students (Baker, 
1990; Willis, 1990).  The questionnaire was given out in general form to 
all fifth form students in science at the school both in 1991 and in 1992.
For this paper, we will only mention results of interviews carried out with 
students at the end of the two modules investigated in 1991.  For these 
interviews one of us (DW) participated in an Earth Science module, and 
interviewed individual students afterwards.  The Earth Science module 
consisted of students who were taking "double science" and whose grades 
were better than average in the final results for the year.  The other 
author (LB) participated in a Plants and Horticulture module, with many 
students who failed science as a fifth form subject.  Many students from 
this module preferred to be interviewed in pairs rather than as 
individuals.
Results
Assessment for each of the six modules in fifth form science at the school 
usually consisted of several pieces of work:  the student's completed 
notebook of completed lab and practical work assignments, one or two  
pieces of written homework (e.g., a written report of an experiment) and a 
final in-class test.  At the end of the module students received a final 
grade which was described as a "raw mark" by teachers.  One teacher in the 
school was in charge of a computer programme which would then convert raw 
marks for each teacher's module (there were approximately 6-8? modules 
running at one time) into scaled marks.  At the end of the year these 
scaled marks would be averaged, and the final distribution for the entire 
fifth form readjusted to fit the percentage of A1s, A2s down to ?? that had 
been assigned to the school by the NZQA.  The NZQA based its allocation of 
accredited grades to a particular school based on scores on the "NZQA 
Closed ?Reference Test", a moderating test consisting of multiple-choice 
questions based on students' knowledge of third- and fourth-form science 
syllabi.  Until 1992 no past forms of the test had been available for 
teachers to peruse.  The NZQA moderating test is held in the middle of the 
school year each year, and results of scores on this test for each student 

were available in November during 1991.
In addition to the moderating test, students in Farflung College also sat 
another multiple-choice general test of science at the beginning of the 
school year.  This test, the Wellington Science Certificate, was a more 
general test of knowledge of basic science concepts.  Farflung College used 
the results of this test in its computer programme which scaled each 
module's marks as the year progressed, before the results of the moderating 
test could be known. 
Interviews with students at the end of the 1991 modules showed that some 
students had no idea about the whole process of the moderating test and the 
way it was used in scaling.
LB: So what about the test that you did earlier in the year, um, whether 
that is something 
Laura: yeah, at midyear.
LB: Do you think that affects the marks that you got?
Jeannie (laughing) : I hope not! 
Laura: I didn't do it. So um, I don't
Jeannie: I can't actually remember all that much, it was, I think it was 
multi-choice mostly.
and later in the interview:
Jeannie:  they were saying, oh we've got this, to do this science exam and 
it, coz they were saying that science is all internally assessed so I was 
thinking oh well this must be just something carried on from third and 
fourth form, nothing to do with my fifth form marks. And now I'm being told 
that it IS (laughs). Yeah it is a worry.
LB (to Laura) : How do you react to that?
Laura: Um, it doesn't bother me.  It was such a long time ago, just 
(laughs).
These students showed a marked passivity to the idea of the scaling as a 
mysterious process arranged outside the school.
LB:  ...how the system works, it's just amazing really.
Laura (laughing) : Where did it come from? 
LB: So you don't have any ideas about how that, how that works or, do you 
think it affects you or the way you study or the marks you get?
Jeannie (after comment from Laura): yeah, just do what they ask you to do 
and come back with the mark and oh yeah, ok (laughs), don't really
Laura: doesn't really matter
Jeannie: yeah
Even for a student who did understand how the moderating test worked, it 
was often described as a process carried on in some faraway place where 
test scores come from.
James (smiling) : In the middle of the year we sat a test
DW: right


J: that gave us the marks that was just what we learnt in science over 
third and fourth form I think and up until fifth form and just and then 
that got sent away and the results from that come back and they just have 
like there's so many 80%s so many 40%s or whatever and they find out the 
top people in the school all the way down.
One focus of the interviews was to investigate the effects of moderating 
and scaling procedures on the motivation of students for learning in 
science.
Many students expressed strong feelings of disquiet about scaling, 
particularly for students whose high marks had been lowered through the 
scaling process.
Hannah:  I get scaled down so much I've been scaled down about 20 marks 
before and it's a bit disheartening coz it's a whole grade's go down.  so 
I've been scaled down from 95 to about 78 and um it's just a bit, you know, 
you think you've worked really hard and then you think, oh, then you get 
scaled down 20 marks and then while other people get scaled up. (from LB's 
interview with Hannah and Julie)
One student in each module mentioned the case of a male student whose marks 
had been greatly lowered by scaling from "90" to an "A2".
Kimberly:  this is a real pain because I've been pulled down from A1 so 
many times and I feel I really deserve those A1s I've worked hard for them 
and like another module some a guy got 90% and he only got an A2 because it 
was scaled down so far, and that sort of thing I don't think that's fair.  
I mean of course I don't mind being scaled up but I would be happy with an 
A2.  Fair's fair. (DW interview with Kimberly)
Concern over being scaled down affected both girls and boys in the modules.
Bruce:  Coz I've got marks like this module I think I've, Ms X said my real 
mark was 84% or something which in the book it says it should be an A1 but 
because I don't think I did very well in the test it would be scaled down, 
probably  two, two grades.
LB:  Because of something you did earlier?
Bruce: yeah, coz of the test we did at the beginning of the year.
Geoff: yeah  (LB interview with Geoff & Bruce)
The scaling process had strong effects on the continuing motivation of 
students throughout the six modules.  
Bruce: yeah, I'm definitely working harder now than I was then and it's 
bringing my marks down, you know to the, where they are in the test is I 
think, where it is but, yeah
LB: So even though you're working harder, you feel like your mark is lower, 
is that right?
Bruce: yeah
LB: because of the scaling thing?
Bruce: yeah 
Most students said that they had continued to work hard for the last module 
of the year, even if they felt it was "hopeless" because their grades were 
already set for the year.  However, students expressed contradictory views 
about the value of their efforts, based on a number of factors which 
students seemed to take into consideration.  For example, two students 
thought that their past performance would affect their current assessment 
in the current module because of teacher expectation or "halo" effects, 
especially when the student has had the same teacher a number of times.
LB: When you um started this module did you feel that your grade was 
already set for the whole year or (pause) that it could still change?
James: Um, probably could change but it would be uh a bit hard.   Coz I've 
had Mrs X, this is the the fourth time I've had her this year.
LB: uh hm.  And so why would that be hard?  
James (tearfully): well, she would um probably know or expect me to do so 
much.
One student thought there would be an expectation effect even with 
different teachers.
LB: Did that, did that affect you, Julie, did you , did you feel like 
things were set by the time you started the module?  
Julie: Oh, yeah, it's like many, I don't know, you always think at the 
beginning there's no mark, it's like if I get a range of marks on your 
report so, it always ends like the teacher's of course just written down 

what the other one has so. They probably haven't! (girls laugh)
     (LB's interview with Julie and Hannah)
Though her final laughing comment was a disclaimer for her statement, Julie 
seemed to be expressing some concern about the effect of previous module 
marks on her current work.
Finally, there were a number of bizarre misconceptions from various 
students about the modulating process.  At least one student got the idea 
that only 5 of the 6 modules would "count" for the final grade.
Steve: I knew I pretty much flunked that one and I had a lot of stuff to 
catch up on in my other subjects so I thought well, you know, there's not 
use me still thrashing out this one, where, you know, those other ones are 
only a week away.
DW: Right
Steve: So I pretty much gave that one up.
DW: So you knew you'd passed
Steve: eah
DW: You weren't aiming for an A1 or anything?
Steve: Oh, Yeah, I wasn't aiming for an A1.  Also I'm not sure how many 
they judge either.  I think they could judge 5.
DW: Oh, is that right?
Steve: I'm not sure.  I took the risk that that is the case.
Unfortunately this idea was not correct, as we learned from the teacher, 
since all six modular marks would count equally for the final grade. 
A number of comments in the interviews suggested that students linked the 
idea of scaling based on the moderating test directly to the idea of 
moderation via an intelligence-type test.
DW: and how do they decide what's, how do they decide how many are going to 
get 1s and A2s?
Maggie: oh, we had a moderating test I think it was, about 6 months ago.   
[ ] and they work out I suppose how brainy the fifth form is or something 
(laughs) I'm not really sure, eh? 
James linked the moderating test, correctly, to the idea of a set normal 
distribution of marks.
DW: How do [the teachers] actually decide whether the marks are going to be 
scaled or not?  What do they base their decision on?
James: I think they use one of those mean [ ] little graph things 
(demonstrates normal curve in the air)
D: like a normal distribution?
J: yeah, I think that's what they use and the marks are pretty low in the 
class, then they'll scale them up if they are high they'll scale them down.
Kimberly focussed on the idea that the moderating test was based on content 
which had not been explicitly covered at school, which she clearly thought 
was not a fair process, though she seems to consider that personal interest 
in science would be the crucial factor for performance on the moderating 
test rather than an idea of "intelligence".
Kimberly:  I mean different teachers teach different parts of science and 
they are giving a whole test for something that hasn't been based on the 
syllabus, and it also comes down to what you personally, if you personally 
like science, if you sort of had a good look at it you can't study for that 
sort of test it's
DW: yeah
K: I don't think it's a good idea.
Other students may have expressed disquiet at the unfairness of the 
moderating procedures for their personal outcomes, but at the same time 
accepted the legitimacy of the test as a school procedure.  In the 
interview excerpt below, Bruce again complained about the unfairness of 
scaling which reduced his grades.  
Bruce: sometimes I get a bit annoyed when you see like people who are 
getting, when they're only allowed to give you sort of like two A1s in the 
module and and like 3 or 4 people get above the grade I suppose you get for 
an A1 with their raw marks, but people have to get scaled down.   Slacks me 
off about these people.  Always seem to get the high marks, but never mind, 
but yeah [ ]
LB: So why, why do you think they do that?
Bruce: What? (laughs) um, you mean scaling or what?
LB: No, just why particular people, can you...

Bruce: I don't know, there's some people who seem to have um natural 
ability to learn more, some people work hard...


Though here Bruce expresses negative views of the scaling process as 
unfair, he also appears to have accepted as legitimate the place of the 
moderating test in selecting particular students entitled to do well 
because of the "natural ability", even when a larger number of students 
have achieved at similar levels of success.
Discussion
The interesting difference between the NZQA Moderating test and the 
Wellington Science Certificate Test appears to be that, while the latter is 
based on factual science concepts which could be memorised, the Moderating 
test was designed to be a more "process-oriented" (anonymous quote from 
Ministry of Education representative) measure of scientific reasoning, 
rather than factual content.

Educative outcomes are more likely to result when in-course assessment is 
concerned not only with the product of learning but also with its process.  
In-course assessment appears to be an obvious way of encouraging high 
quality learning.  However, as practised, school-based assessment does not 
always deliver such benefits to teachers and learners.  Terms such as in-
course or school-based assessment indicate nothing other than the 
assessment location (i.e. it takes place within the school and typically 
within a class rather than through external examinations).  Not only is 
nothing revealed about methods of assessment or the skills or knowledge 
that are assessed but underlying ideologies are unacknowledged.  So that 
while in-course assessment is a key element in innovative democratic forms 
of assessment (Blackmore, 1988) it may in some settings only serve to 
reinforce existing technicist notions about the nature of learning and its 
measurement.  As Blackmore argues:
'It cannot be assumed, however, that any particular mode of assessment 
alone can guarantee a democratic or rewarding learning experience or fair 
outcomes.  This would suggest that methodologies have intrinsic value'  (p. 
51).
With these cautionary points in mind it has nevertheless been demonstrated 
that the implications for an educative form of school-based assessment 
extend beyond the adoption of a range of assessment methods.  In the first 
place, its assumptions are consistent with recent research findings on the 
nature of learning.  This research has documented the resistant nature of 
students' ideas, the importance of commitment and self determination for 
the development of real learning (White, 1992).  Secondly, the integration 
of process and product enables meaningful diagnostic information to be 
collected by teachers and students.  In addition, the educative assessment 
model described here is supported by principles of democracy and social 
justice.

"Think global, act local" is the conservationist's t-shirt epigram that I 
like the most.  We can see the importance of knowing what issues students 
are dealing with in various classrooms around our countries, while never 
losing sight of the idea that it is our local knowledge that matters, 
knowledge of our community groups, or our job & family structures, of the 
needs of the workforce in small shops and large industries, and that it is 
teachers that provide this link between the world and its large adult 
concerns and the school and the skills pared down, essentialised and made 
meaningful to young people who need to be preparing flexibly for the world 
we adults will only get a glimpse of.
   Based on constructivist theory Bowden (1990) describes high quality 
learning as involving a search for meaning and the formation of 
relationships between what is learned and individual experience.  Learning 
is therefore not merely an increase in the amount of one's knowledge but a 
change in student conceptions with the result that the world is viewed 
differently.
     
     

ƒá„álackmore, 1988; Broadfoot, 1984;ate' (Murphy and Torrance, 1988, p. 
seem relevant here, in the emphasis on numbers and labels, on the 
technicist approach assumessessment is seen as providing aof reporting,


which attempts to be  
could reflectmore 's unique potentialare thus seen as enmeshed within,,
al perspectives of all students;
.
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The construction of the new National Certificate in New Zealand is an 
educational reform innovation which is designed to make the qualifications 
structure more flexible.  The Certificate will incorporate levels from both 
secondary and tertiary study in a modular framework.  In our case study in 
the secondary school reported here, we were interested to see how a subject 
which is taught as internally assessed modules would  balance the pressures 
between technicist and educative assessment philosophies.

We hoped that such information would be useful in considering possible 
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Jeannie and Laura made further comments about the moderating test. 
In the excerpt below, Bruce correctly referred to the Wellington Science 
Certificate test at the beginning of th year as a moderating test.  In 
fact, the school was unusual (compared to other schools) in using this test 
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ofyAA disquieting anomaly we discovered in our time at Farflung College was 
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relevant, local content actually covered by students motivated and immersed 
in their science learning.  Interview excerpts we have presented were but a 
small sample of the discontented rumblings we listened to from both 
students and teachers about the moderating syst;em.  What are the prospects 
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grounding of these concepts ini crucialf job andstudents 
at.

Assessment that is educative is most 
likely to be internally assessed, but, as we have shown, educative 
assessment innovations of teachers can be sabotaged by tehnicist assessment 
pressuress to rank sctudents on national norms, using simple tests so that 
every student can be placesd on the same uni-dimensional scale of "natural 
ability".
We discovered some disquieting anomalies about "internally assessed"science 
in our secondary school fieldwork.  A local competency-based test, g(WSC) 
early proximation for eudent grades for each module.  Y    In neither case, 
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thateducators : mall shops and large industries.   We think it is teachers 
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wider worldchnicist assessment pressures to rank sthat every student can be 
place   The educative possibilities in the proposed National Certificate 

are poised at the crossroads.
udents for learning in science.  efrom whichwould be scaled down, probably 
o
lackmore, 1988; Broadfoot, 1984School Certificate National () Science, 
Biological Science or Physical Sciencewhich isClosed Reference T"allocating 
a pool of grades for each school from a national distribution of grades.
questionnaire also included aened "Students' Approach to Linventory 
(T8unning simultaneously. sdifferent grades  also  from earlier form 
yearsto scaleNZQA wereutinustinJessicaJessica
JohnJohn

forms of assessment created by teachers within the modules (which we have 
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distribution of grades in fifth form modular science was thus not 
beResponses of students in the interview excerptshere 
l moderation
In-coursein-coursein-coursein-courseKnowledge tapped in the NZQA test was 
in fact 

on the previous two years of study, rather than on the half-year of science 
students had already covered in the fifth form.  in-
courseinternallystatistically -courseassessed within coursesPfor assessment 
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jective   educational judgements',ucative school-based assessment:-----ew 
ealand,their class plan for the module ands-i'earning' school based on 
scores on the 'eference Test'it's a whole grade's go down.  S