What principles guide moderation?
Moderation is most effective when:
- it is conducted in a spirit of professional learning and quality improvement (expect some dissonance)
- teachers (inside moderators) have appropriate knowledge of content area, assessment practices, and policies and procedures
- it is carried out regularly
- it is begun at the planning stage - prior to teaching and assessment (ensuring teachers share understandings about important learning and indicators of it)
- appropriate assessment tasks are decided on, or designed, aligned to actual learning
- equivalent assessments are agreed, when desired, for cross-class or cross-school comparisons (for example, cluster groups of schools for professional development purposes)
- moderation processes lead to improved learning and assessment
- moderators outside of the school (for example, clusters of schools, facilitators, invited teachers from other schools) may be periodically involved to give independent feedback.