Schools are ever busy putting in place strategies that will enable them to perform better. They fast track completion of syllabi, religiously administer written monthly tests, common cluster or regional tests, increase frequencies of study as well as introduce weekend study.

On the flip side, these could exacerbate the situation as learners could become more stressed. One possible strategy, often overlooked, is accreditation.

Accreditation is simply the inspection of the learning quality indicators in the school to see if they exist and are adequate. Schools can accredit themselves as a way of improving achievement.

This should cover all the aspects of the school, no matter how remotely related to learning they may seem, to determine how well they work together. Some of these indicators include:

The school vision and mission: every school should have a vision and mission statement which describe what they want to be and how to get there. The mere presence of these statements is not enough, but what is of significance is whether all employees, including learners, were involved in its formulation and that it is understood the same. Developed in this way, it serves as a strategic plan for success and motivation. School Leadership: school heads as instructional leaders should be well grounded in assessment principles to effectively lead the team. They should provide enough resources, cultivate a conducive environment for assessment, capacitate teachers in assessment, and put in place a monitoring me c h a n i s m a n d a strategy for continuous improvement. The school head should cultivate a culture of excellence by entrenching quality into the system and the doers.

The School Curriculum: the school should craft its own curriculum derived from the mainstream one, which itself serves as a general guide to the educational standards. The curriculum should be crafted in standardsbased way for ease of implement at i on and assessment. Doing this increases the likelihood of congruence between the intended curriculum, the implemented curriculum a n d t h e a c h i e v e d curriculum is high.

Teacher competency to assess: assessment skills encompass knowledge of test development , knowledge of assessment formats, types of assessment methods, methods of grading, score analysis and interpretation, crafting of marking schemes, use of assessment results, tracking learner progress, understanding the different purposes of assessment, among others.

Workload: If teacher wo r k l o a d i s h i g h , assessment is likely to be of poor quality. The amount of workload is negatively correlated with the quality of assessment conducted by the teacher. Thus the more the learners in a class , the more work for individualised assessment in a learnercentred approach. It is recommended that class size should not be more than twenty- five learners for effective assessment to take place.

Documentation: There should b e thorough documentation to guide assessors on appropriate assessment. In order to track learners progress and institute continuous improvement , the re is need for keeping of quality records of learners’ assessment.

Moderation: Despite r igorous training on assessment that teachers received, they will naturally differ in how they score l earne rs’ work even when using standardised marking scheme. Hence inte rnal moderat i on strategies should be in place to cater for that. Moderation should be done prior to commencement of assessment, during assessment and af ter assessment for fairness to all learners.

Parental Involvement: school- based assessment suffers rejection by the public because of low validity and reliability. Parents should be engaged in school activities to enhance their chances of observing, learning and appreciating the authenticity of schoolbased assessment in action. Furthermore, parents understand their children better thus can help the teacher to appropriately situate the assessment of every learner.

C o m m u n i t y Pa r t i c i p a t i o n : t h e school exists within the community, as such community members should be actively involved in the school activities. The community understands their context better and can help in formulating effective curriculum and learning experiences. The community finances l e a r n i n g i n c l u d i n g assessment in various ways. Some members of the community have expertise in various educational areas including assessment that they can volunteer to the school.

Resources: There is low correlation between resources and achievement. The biggest contributor to learners’ achievement is learners themselves through teachers’ guidance. Hence the need for regular continuous professional teacher development in all aspects of their work. However, this does not mean that resources are not important. Adequate resources should therefore be made available at all times. Learner involvement: learning is for learners, therefore everything about learning should involve them. Learners should know in advance how they will be assessed and in what content. They should also be involved in self- and peer assessment. A variety of assessment modes should be in place to assess learners to match their learning styles and rates. Learners should also be willing to complete the assessment for it to be valid. Monitoring and Supervision: A selfchecking mechanism should be embedded in the process of the doer. Monitoring and supervision are extremely important as a continuous process aimed at improving assessment. But when the above standards are in place, monitoring and supervision become minimal.

These and any other specific indicator( s) to the school should be in place for assessment to be of high quality resulting in impactful learning.