School-Based Assessment in a Caribbean Public Examination

by Stafford A. Griffith

Overview

This work explores the historical, conceptual, theoretical and practical dimensions of school-based assessment (SBA) in a public examination. In part 1, Griffith offers the history and context for the exploration of the issues of SBA in a public examination and reviews the history and concept of public examinations and the evolution and mandate of the Caribbean Examinations Council as a public examinations board serving member countries of the region. In part 2, he provides the foundations for a discourse of the concept, theory and practice of SBA in the context of the public examinations of the Caribbean Examinations Council and explores key issues in SBA in a public examination. In part 3, he examines a number of new directions and practices related to SBA in a public examination, for example, the use of an alternative (external) paper to assess the same competencies developed and assessed in the SBA undertaken in schools, the implementation and assessment of group work in SBA, the use of a single project for the SBA of a cluster of subjects, and ways in which the benefits of SBA in a public examination may guide practice at all levels of the education system to improve student learning and assessment.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9789766405540
Publisher:	The University of the West Indies Press
Publication date:	10/31/2015
Pages:	156
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.36(d)

About the Author

STAFFORD A. GRIFFITH is Professor of Research, Measurement and Evaluation, Director of the School of Education, and Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Education, University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica.

Table of Contents

List of Abbreviations
Part 1: The History and Context
CXC as a Caribbean Public Examinations Board
Public Examinations Tailored to Caribbean Needs
Quality Assurance: An Important Role as a Regional Public Examinations Board
Innovations by CXC in the Offer of Public Examinations in the Caribbean
Part 2: Key Issues
Individualizing a Part of the Curriculum through School-Based Assessment
Developing and Assessing Skills Often Excluded from Conventional Public Examinations
The Centrality of Feedback
Summative Assessment of Candidates and the Role of the Teacher
Part 3: New Directions
The Alternative Paper to School-Based Assessment
Group Work in School-Based Assessment
A Single Project for Clusters of Subjects
Adoption of the Benefits of School-Based Assessment through Continuous Assessment
References
Index

Editorial Reviews

There is a need to present the valuable work of the CXC in a way that stakeholders can understand it. . . . Griffith discusses the challenges that the examination board faces with regard to the school-based assessments as well as the alternative to the school-based assessment, and recommends strategies and procedures to deal with the challenges. He presents sound discussions . . . [and] shows knowledge and understanding of current thinking in the field.”
—James A. Halliday, School of Education, University of the West Indies, Cave Hill, Barbados

“The work makes a solid contribution to the growing body of literature on the CXC’s school-based assessment . . . [and] demonstrates a high level of scholarship through the writer’s obvious knowledge and understanding and insightful analysis and arguments presented. This analysis is applied with equal facility to theoretical as well as practical issues related to the SBA.”
—Gordon N. Harewood, education assessment specialist, Barbados

From the Publisher