Blog

• 10th Mar 2026

  Opinion

  Post‑16 pathways reform: three assessment questions AOs and providers need to answer now

  By Mark House

  The government’s post‑16 Level 3 and below reforms are no longer abstract policy; they are now a concrete redesign of the 16–19 landscape. A Levels, T Levels, new V Levels and two reformed Level 2 pathways will replace a crowded field of overlapping qualifications. In that world, assessment quality, standards and progression evidence stop being technical details and become existential questions for awarding organisations and providers.

• 10th Mar 2026

  Opinion

  What Might an Appeals Process Look Like with RM Compare?

  By Mark House

  This post sketches what a fair, defensible appeals process can look like when RM Compare sits at the heart of grading. The short version is that appeals do not disappear; they become more transparent and more evidence‑rich, because every judgement and every decision point is logged.

• 10th Mar 2026

  Opinion

  Workload, Grades and Transparency: Why ACJ Needs a Different Starting Point

  By Mark House

  When ACJ is judged by rubric‑first assumptions, it will always look like a poor imitation of traditional marking: more judgements, awkward grade mapping, fewer boxes ticked. If we instead start from its own epistemology - holistic, relative, expert judgement as the primary evidence of quality - then workload becomes a design and scheduling question, not an intrinsic flaw.

• 9th Mar 2026

  Opinion

  What does a four‑year‑old Clumber Spaniel named Bruin have in common with Olympic breakdancing and modern examinations?

  By Mark House

  On the surface, nothing at all. Bruin is a gentle, long‑backed gundog who has just trotted his way to Best in Show at Crufts, padding calmly down the famous green carpet while the NEC holds its breath. Breakers will spin and freeze their way across an Olympic floor to pounding music. Examiners sit alone with stacks of scripts and detailed mark schemes. Three very different worlds, three very different kinds of performance.

• 9th Mar 2026

  Opinion

  If AI Is Serious About Learning Outcomes, ‘Ground Truth’ Has to Mean More Than Last Year’s Exam Scores (Part 2/2)

  By Mark House

  In Part 1 of this series, we asked who gets to define “learning” in an AI world and argued for a human‑grounded validity layer alongside AI‑native analytics. That conversation becomes very concrete when you look at one small, easy‑to‑miss element in OpenAI’s Learning Outcomes Measurement Suite diagram

• 9th Mar 2026

  Opinion

  Who Gets to Define “Learning” in an AI World? (Part 1/2)

  By Mark House

  OpenAI’s new “Learning Outcomes Measurement Suite” is more than a product announcement; it is a bid to define how AI‑mediated learning will be measured – and, by implication, what will count as learning in the years ahead

• 6th Mar 2026

  Product

  New - Introducing the RM Compare Modular Ecoystem

  By Mark House

  For years, RM Compare has helped teachers, exam boards, universities and recruiters turn thousands of “which is better?” decisions into fair, reliable rankings of complex work.​ What began as a powerful way to compare pieces of work has now grown into something bigger: a complete ecosystem for creating, managing, and using gold‑standard judgements at scale.​ Today we’re introducing RM Compare | Live, Studio, Hub – three modules that work together as a continuous flywheel.

• 3rd Mar 2026

  Opinion

  Newsletter March 2026

  By Mark House

  For this edition we have produced a couple of series focusing on two critical considerations in the world of assessment, and education more generally. The 'AI World' is moving fast and finding time for necessary thinking and consideration has never been more important.

• 27th Feb 2026

  Curriculum

  Curriculum and the Future of Assessment - The Architecture of Curriculum Alignment (Part 5)

  By Mark House

  Over this series we’ve built an argument step by step: Different curriculum models (content, product, process) need different assessment logics. Curriculum for Wales (CfW), as illuminated by Camau i’r Dyfodol, is best understood as a process curriculum. Adaptive Comparative Judgement (ACJ), via RM Compare, is an agnostic engine: it can serve any of these models depending on how it’s configured.

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