Educational assessment policy and practice: a matter of ethics

Long-standing concerns within the field of educational assessment consider the impact of assessment policy and practice as matters of equity, inequality and social justice. Yet educational assessment policy and practice continues to have powerful social consequences for key users such as children and young people. This paper re-positions these consequences as a matter of ethics. It uses the work of Messick to frame how ethical matters extend beyond test instruments into the realm of uses and impact. A case study of the 11+ school transfer system in Northern Ireland is presented to illustrate ethical dilemmas emerging as a consequence of actions and decisions of using assessment systems for particular purposes. In looking forward to how we might attend to ethical matters in assessment policy and practice, a consideration of a children’s rights approach is outlined that may provide a moral and legal framework for action.     

Widely linear estimation for multisensor quaternion systems with mixed uncertainties in the observations

The optimal widely linear state estimation problem for quaternion systems with multiple sensors and mixed uncertainties in the observations is solved in a unified framework. For that, we devise a unified model to describe the mixed uncertainties of sensor delays, packet dropouts and uncertain observations by using three Bernoulli distributed quaternion random processes. The proposed model is valid for linear discrete-time quaternion stochastic systems measured by multiple sensors and it allows us to provide filtering, prediction and smoothing algorithms for estimating the quaternion state through a widely linear processing. Simulation results are employed to show the superior performance of such algorithms in comparison to standard widely linear methods when mixed uncertainties are present in the observations.     

Undermining Gender Stereotypes: examination and coursework performance in the UK at 16

Gender‐related differences in performance are a major concern in the public examination system in the UK which is undergoing major changes in both subject content and assessment technique. This is particularly so because the pattern of gender‐related performance is also changing. The paper examines these changes and challenges some of the current assumptions about gender related performance. In 1992 The University of London Examinations Council (ULEAC) and The National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) investigated the extent to which the structures and assessment techniques used within the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) actually amplify or reduce the gender‐related differences that exist in examination outcomes. Evidence was collected which suggested that coursework plays only a minimal role in explaining substantial differences in English and mathematics. Teacher and pupil expectations, entry policies and emphases within syllabuses seem to be more significant factors when accounting for the differences. The gender‐related patterns of performance in the GCSE are parallel to wider trends at an international level.