Even though teachers may attempt to support student agency by demystifying some of the ‘secret teacher business’ of assessment by giving detailed instructions and information in the task sheet, we contend that overly detailed instructions can complicate tasks and create additional barriers for students with disability. These multiple purposes can add to the complexity of task sheet designs, which can then present barriers for students to access and understand the task requirements, so that they can actively participate in the assessment. In practice, however, assessment task sheets also serve multiple purposes for teachers, such as providing evidence of complying with the requirements of a syllabus as part of teacher quality assurance processes, and to help justify assessment decisions to students and parents. These are practices that reflect Emirbayer and Mische’s ( 1998) threefold definition of human agency. Ideally, assessment task sheets are structural resources that help students engage in practical evaluative judgments as they check their developing work against the specifications, while drawing on habits developed over time and their creative imagination. It is well established that students develop their understanding of quality and their ability to make choices in assessment by drawing from descriptions of shared criteria and standards, alongside social support such as discussion and multiple exemplars, to ensure their assessment responses amount to more than criteria compliance (Sadler 1987 Torrance 2017). This capacity to evaluate options in order to make choices and have greater personal control over quality outcomes is at the heart of the definition of student agency (Bandura 2006).

By being aware of the criteria against which they will be judged, teachers hope students will grow their capacity for self-assessment and active participation. Assessment task sheets are invitations to create performances that will be judged or assessed by others.

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