Codes of Ethics on Assessment Practice: confronting a quandary or inculcating ethical character? — overview of two sample documents

This article reviews two examples of ethical codes produced to provide a set of standards, principles, or guidelines for professional conduct relating to educational assessment. Both codes classify professional responsibilities under key functions of assessment described in the article. The commentary identifies as important uses of the Codes self‐regulation of ethical standards within the profession and facilitation of teaching about ethical conduct. Although institutions and bureaucracies are increasingly regulating professional and research practice through ethics committees, it is argued that ethical behaviour is likely to be more effective and more pervasive when developed through education, reflection and deliberate modelling. Similarly, such behaviour is more likely to be sustained through peer scrutiny and professional self‐regulation than through monitoring via bureaucratic control. Such a stance implies the need for ready access to ethics codes widely known and endorsed within the profession.