Where teachers are the assessors, Alta introduces the use of progression grids. A grid for any particular subject identifies the significant and persistent traits for that subject. Alta's marking scheme combines a holistic or impressionistic mark (as commonly used by teachers) with marks for each trait being assessed. Some of these marks are in the form of differentiated levels, i.e. a level may be divided notionally into three zones as low, mid and high. Colour coding is used for the zones.
The abiding problem with teacher-based marking is the lack of reliable calibration. Alta attempts mitigation through the provision of e-Libs (exemplar libraries). An e-Lib for a given subject's marking scheme contains examples of 'best' marking with detailed commentaries of how the marks for the traits were determined. In practice, the e-Lib entries will have been doubly moderated, i.e. they were selected by their schools as examples of 'good' marking for submission to the central moderators, who then select the 'best' of these 'good' examples to be entered into the e-Lib.
Alta supports these two layers by providing for central e-Libs, controlled by the central moderators and seen by all schools, and school-based e-Libs seen only by the schools that create them.
An e-Lib may be used in a number of ways:
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