Facilitating student involvement in assessment in diverse classrooms: a comparative case study of five whole-school practices

Student participation in assessment is essential for realising inclusion in culturally and linguistically diverse classrooms. This paper explores how building whole-school assessment practices and a shared assessment culture enable such student involvement and participation. Drawing on case study data from interviews with school leaders, teachers and students from five schools, we create a narrative account of the schools’ practices to examine the policies, guidelines and practices that guide teachers’ classroom assessment practices. In addition, the study examines how teachers and school leaders facilitate and cater for student interaction and participation in assessment, and how the different actors in the schools perceive and describe these practices. The five schools succeed to different degrees in facilitating student involvement by 1) facilitating a whole-school approach and building an assessment culture with shared practices understood, and enacted, throughout the school, and 2) involving teachers in building shared guidelines for assessments and facilitating teacher cooperation.