ABSTRACT
Although assessment had often been the focus of educational debate and reform, for example, the 11+ examination, and the introduction of CSE, I think it is fair to say that assessment debate and reform had never been tackled on so many fronts, so continuously, so pervasively and so far reaching as those during the 1980s. During this period there had been three main initiatives and reform, the GCSE, Records Of Achievement (ROA) and the National Curriculum. There had been a long build-up to the amalgamation of the GCE and CSE to form the GCSE, and with it came more fundamental change from norm referencing to criterion referencing which has changed teachers’ thinking on testing in other situations and for all ages. At approximately the same time, Government pilot schemes of ROA were taking place because of the dissatisfaction with examination results and certificates, along with the oft discredited and non-compulsory school reports, as the only means of showing what had been achieved at school. But, of course, ROA does not just target the fifth year leaving pupil in that year. In future it will target the pupils’ achievement throughout the school years. After an ‘on-off’ situation, recording and reporting to parents finally became part of Government policy.
