Assessment Reform in Education: Policy and Practice

Description

The early 21st century saw education reforms in many countries that were driven by new economic imperatives and that generally called for a realignment of assessment concepts to match the prevailing educational goals. Divided into two sections and fourteen chapters, this book provides an interpretation of why current assessment policies take the form that they do and the role and status of assessment for learning in the policy-making debates, and identifies the problems and challenges that have occurred and the resolutions that might be proposed. The chapters in the first section, assessment reform experiences, review the history and development of assessment policy and practice in different countries around the world and focus on the issues related to assessment reform in these countries. The salient features of the issues identified are discussed in the second section, issues in the spotlight, of the book. The chapters in this section analyze the origins/causes and discuss complexities, tensions, dilemmas and/or possibilities associated with the issue as well as setting out the implications of the issue for the future of assessment reform, and possible ways forward. Front Matter....Pages i-xxvii Front Matter....Pages 1-1 Assessment Reform Past, Present and Future....Pages 3-14 Assessment for Learning: Research and Policy in the (Dis)United Kingdom....Pages 15-32 Assessment for Learning: US Perspectives....Pages 33-47 Educational Assessment in Mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan....Pages 49-61 Assessment Reform and Educational Change in Australia....Pages 63-74 Assessment for Learning Reform in Singapore – Quality, Sustainable or Threshold?....Pages 75-87 Assessment Reforms Around the World....Pages 89-102 Front Matter....Pages 103-103 Engaging and Empowering Teachers in Innovative Assessment Practice....Pages 105-119 Teachers’ Feedback to Pupils: “Like So Many Bottles Thrown Out to Sea”?....Pages 121-133 Assessment for Learning in Language Classrooms....Pages 135-154 Assessment Reform: High-Stakes Testing and Knowing the Contents of Other Minds....Pages 155-163 Assessment of Significant Learning Outcomes....Pages 165-183 Developing Assessment for Learning in a Large-Scale Programme....Pages 185-196 Embedding Assessment for Learning....Pages 197-203 Back Matter....Pages 205-215