Only 45% of Surveyed Accounting Educators Rate Assessment Well at Measuring What Matters

You finish marking a stack of scripts, and the marks look reasonable. But did the paper reward the judgement you most wanted to see, or mainly what was easy to mark?

A new Accounting Cafe survey suggests that many of the educators who responded share that doubt about assessment.

What the survey asked

Toby York, Stuart Pedley-Smith and Paul Jennings ran the survey from 30 June to 2 August 2026 and received 652 responses through Accounting Cafe's channels (p. 30).

Respondents came from universities, schools, colleges, workplace training and professional-qualification tuition; 58% were university educators (p. 31).

Assessment trails preparation

Asked how well assessment in accounting education measures what really matters, 45% of 649 respondents answered well or very well. Yet 61% of 651 said education in their setting prepares learners well for what comes next (p. 18).

The extremes reverse, too: "very well" drew 21% for preparation but 10% for assessment, while "not well" drew 10% and 21% (p. 18).

No teaching setting rated assessment above preparation (p. 18). Among university educators, 43% rated assessment well or very well, while 61% said the same of preparation (p. 19).

In commentary the report labels as opinion (p. 2), the authors argue that "tests that measure the wrong things steer teaching in the wrong direction too" (p. 19).

Limits and context

This is an opinion survey, not a test of any assessment method. Respondents chose to take part, so the authors say the sample is not statistically representative (p. 2). The report does not give a response rate.

The authors cannot say how far the sample departs from the population it was drawn from, and suspect it may overrepresent engaged and experienced educators. The UK and Ireland supplied 37% of responses, and 57% had taught for more than 12 years (p. 30).

The authors analysed the data and comments with AI assistance, and say the AI-generated themes and findings were interrogated and shaped by their own questions and prompts (p. 30).

Evidence strength: early signal. This is one self-selected opinion survey of 652 educators, taken once, with no reported response rate. It shows how respondents see assessment, not how well assessment works.