Assessment reform and students' voices

Educational assessment is frequently positioned as having three dimensions: policy, process, and practice. The outcomes of the decisions in these dimensions manifest both in educational settings where young people “do” assessment, and in the “use” of assessment as a major component of politically driven educational policy change. Under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, children and young people have a rights entitlement to have their views heard and taken seriously on matters that affect them, yet these two areas - educational assessment and children's rights - are rarely considered as mutually enhancing. This chapter considers how bringing the realm of educational assessment together with young people's right to participation in educational assessment decisions, especially in formal policy deliberations, can produce radical ways of reimagining one of the most important educational activities in the lives of students.