Designing out barriers to student access and participation in secondary school assessment Writer: Linda J. Graham, Haley Tancredi, Jill Willis, and Kelli McGraw. Year: 2017 Background: Assessment task sheets are invitations to create performances that will be judged or assessed by others. 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. The most influential theory: Imagine that a book in an elementary school library is on a shelf 6-feet above the ground (with no ladders or other assistance available). In order to have an opportunity to read the book, a student must have access to the book. The fact that the book is on a shelf so high is a ‘condition of access’; it is an environmental and external factor. This condition of access determines that a necessary ‘criterion of access’ to the book is the ability to reach a height of 6-feet; a child 4