Abstract

As new technologies penetrate every part of educational assessment, data are being collected as never before. For example, many of Cambridge Assessment’s examinations are now marked by examiners working on computers, resulting in marks captured right down to question-part level. While rich data like these are potentially valuable in a wide range of contexts, from providing more detailed results to candidates and teachers, to providing more detailed and timely quality control information to senior assessors, for them to be useful they must be analysed, summarised and clearly presented. The scale of this new demand presents a challenge to large assessment agencies.

In this talk the speaker will outline Cambridge Assessment’s solution to providing flexible, dynamic, on-demand statistical information for use by assessment managers responsible for the validity, reliability and timely delivery of assessments. He will include a summary of findings from a survey of senior examiners who used one of the new statistical services based on item level data.