ABSTRACT
It can be argued that teacher involvement in high-stakes English language testing should feature more prominently in the assessment of students in the twenty-first century. Such involvement is advantageous as the resulting examination is a product of teachers’ experience of the teaching and learning context, subject content, and the student cohort. As Gregory and Clarke (2003) point out, educators must be able to engage with an assessment system so as to contribute to policy making and prevent a centralization of power (pp. 72–73). Harlen (2005) affirms that through involvement, teachers “develop ownership of the procedures and criteria and understand the process of assessment” (p. 221). Such involvement is essential because teacher agency is fundamental to the effective implementation of any assessment initiative.
