Reconsidering Reliability in Classroom Assessment and Grading

It is argued that classroom assessment evolves from a different set of issues and demands from more traditional measurement concerns and that approaches to reliability developed from traditional concerns are not appropriate for most classroom settings. The assessment and grading issues for high school instruction are examined from the perspective of reliability. An alternative conceptualization of reliability, sufficiency of information, is proposed and explored. This conceptualization is based on the argument that at a rudimentary level, reliability theory is based on the notion of having enough information to make decisions or draw inferences.