In order to enhance assessment practice, educators need access to on-going professional professional development activities, rather than just one-shot events such as workshops and in-services. The high attrition rate among educators in the fi eld also supports the notion of on-going training that can be accessed by new employees throughout the year. Opportunities need to be created so that educators in every jurisdiction have access to a broad spectrum of on-going PD activities, such as mentoring and on-line training. Mentoring is a practical pathway for learning about formal and informal approaches to assessment, as it employs observation, responsive feedback, and refl ection. On-line training is a logical pathway for educators who live in remote communities and do not have the funds to travel to workshops or the colleagues to participate in in-service training.
The fi ndings from this survey indicate that many respondents are mandated by funders to conduct comprehensive, on-going, and exit assessments, yet they do not have the capacity to fulfi ll this mandate. The progress a student had made at the completion of the program was measured by only 47 percent of the respondents. Lack of time was the primary barrier preventing people from conducting comprehensive assessments and providing feedback to the student. According to the survey fi ndings, respondents also need the material resources of time and funding to access assessment tools and familiarize themselves with the resources.
The fi ndings indicate that time is both the highest-ranked support and the highestranked constraint with respect to enhancing assessment practices. Forty-five percent of the respondents reported that they receive time to engage in professional development on assessment; yet a smaller percentage (33 percent) reported that they do not have time to administer, interpret, report, and/or conduct follow up assessments. Until the issue of capacity is addressed, professional development on assessment will not lead to more effective practice.