This article illustrates how a new framework for conceptualising comparability has the potential to help assessment professionals to understand and to conduct debate on linking theory and practice. The framework was used as a lens through which to study a corpus of research reports, from which a narrative was constructed to characterise the…

This article concerns the importance of clarity in thinking and talking about certain core concepts of educational assessment. It begins by identifying three quite distinct interpretations of the term "assessment purpose". It continues by challenging the supposed distinction between "formative" and "summative"--arguing that the latter only applies…

There is a tendency in the literature to characterize linking as equating done somewhat less rigorously. The ambiguity of this conception can lead to confusion amongst policy-makers and members of the public and can result in the proliferation of comparability myths. As the constructs assessed by two tests decrease in similarity, so the difference…