ABSTRACT
To investigate competence in each of the profile components the Task Group recommended the use of 'standardized assessment tasks’. The Task Group recommended, however, that there should be no requirement placed upon a school or LEA to publish information about the spread of results of the assessments conducted at the 7-year-olds’ reporting stage. The Task Group Report on assessment and testing for the National Curriculum was published in 1988. For example, a central feature of the report is that assessment should be seen as formative, which means that it should provide information to the teacher which will influence the organization and structure for future learning both for the individual child and the class as a whole. Formative assessment has a number of typical characteristics. It tends to emphasize the positive, focusing upon what the child is able to do, what he or she knows or understands.
