This qualitative study examines the perspectives of eight exemplary African-American science teachers toward No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act and their outreach to families and communities in the context of the USA. Data revealed that whereas these exemplary teachers applauded the general intent of NCLB, they were concerned with its overemphasis on…

For a number of reasons, increasing reliance is being placed on teacher assessment in high-stakes contexts in many countries around the world. Simultaneously, countries that have for some time relied to greater or lesser degrees on teacher assessment for high-stakes purposes are in the process of questioning the validity of that reliance. In…

This paper, based on ESRC-funded research work in four case study schools, explores the "pressures" to "deliver" which bear upon English secondary schools in relation to GCSE performance. It further illustrates the ways in which pressure is transformed into tactics which focus on particular students, with the effect of "rationing" education in the…

This paper reports on a study that clarifies the nature and scope of the challenges experienced by primary school teachers in Swaziland when using Continuous Assessment (CA) as a tool to improve teaching and learning. Through the use of classroom observations and stimulated recall interviews, we sought to understand the significance of the choices…

Accurate marking is crucial to the reliability and validity of public examinations, in England and internationally. Factors contributing to accuracy have been conceptualised as affecting either marking task demands or markers' personal expertise. The aim of this empirical study was to develop this conceptualisation through investigating the…

This article comments upon James and Pollard's contribution in comparison with perspectives on pedagogy in Japan, where the concept has tended to be discredited by academics. TLRP's clusters of 10 principles are reviewed and found to be persuasive and meaningful, especially in relation to the following points: the emphasis on recognising…

This paper reports on a research project on information and communication technology (ICT)-based dynamic assessment. The project aims to reveal the mathematical potential of students in special education. The focus is on a topic that is generally recognised as rather difficult for weak students: subtraction up to 100 with crossing the ten. The…

This paper draws on some of the findings from a research study which examined the current structure of assessment for citizenship in secondary education in England and considers the rationale for the assessment of citizenship. The research included an empirical evaluation of citizenship assessment from the perspective of the key user groups,…

This article argues that whilst there have been substantial advancements in the ways in which learning is conceptualised, theoretical understandings of assessment, and practices that contribute to meaningful statements of learners' achievements, have not mirrored these changes in certain learning contexts. The authors challenge contemporary…

Developments within education, psychology and the neurosciences have shed a great deal of light on how we learn while, at the same time, confirming for us all that learning is a profoundly complex process and far from understood. Against this background, and in this position article, we consider the recent rise in interest in the concept of…

Using video recordings of lessons and interviews with teachers, this article explores the way in which teachers enact Assessment for Learning (AfL) practices in their classrooms. Starting with the hypothesis that AfL is built on an underlying pedagogic principle that foregrounds the promotion of pupil autonomy, we analyse the ways in which…

This paper summarizes the findings of a systematic review of research on the reliability and validity of teachers' assessment used for summative purposes. In addition to the main question, the review also addressed the question "What conditions affect the reliability and validity of teachers' summative assessment?" The initial search for studies…

Explores secondary school staffs' use of value added data, summarizing evidence emerging from other studies on how value added data are used by schools and questions this raises. The paper discusses findings and issues that emerged from a recent National Foundation for Educational Research-funded project that explored the potential role of value…

Compared policies and practices of curriculum change in English and Finnish primary schools. Case studies documented the implementation of reforms at the classroom level and teachers' attitudes toward them. Though England promoted a national curriculum and Finland was moving away from one, teachers in both countries had common responses to change,…

Examines problems with using public examinations to monitor educational standards over time. Educational standards cannot be measured with reference to pass rates, and a static examination standard cannot be applied from year to year, since applying the same standard repeatedly becomes more and more meaningless the further apart the comparison…