Assessment

In all countries assessment is an increasingly high profile and contentious area of educational policy. In the past, Scottish education and its associated assessment systems were regarded as a gold standard across the world. During the 1980s and 1990s Scotland pioneered revolutionary approaches to criterion referenced assessment, certification for all, and developed a national framework of testing to support teachers' professional judgements. But assessment is one of the most academically contested, politically manipulated and practically fraught areas within education, and policy does not always translate readily into practice. This book examines past and emerging innovative policy and practices in educational assessment in Scotland set against a highly charged political background. How can a small nation like Scotland assert its national educational identity in a global context? How can new theories of educational assessment promote revolutions in practice? What lessons can we learn from the tensions and conflicts of the past between policy and practice?
Can Scotland again show the world how to develop innovative national assessment policies which will raise standards and lay the foundation for the economic security promised as a consequence of a well educated population? Highly topical and contentious, the authors have written a critical insiders' view of how innovative assessment systems have evolved and the lessons to be learned for developers everywhere. It will be a standard text for educationalists in Scotland and wherever changes in assessment are contemplated.