ABSTRACT
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development report suggests that increased demands for quality, equity and effectiveness have resulted in assessment being positioned in international policy documents across a wide range of countries as a tool for improvement, accountability and educational planning. National indicator frameworks and international benchmarking are also becoming more and more a feature of assessment practice as results are being used to hold policy makers, school leaders and teachers accountable. Classroom based assessment is understood as having a formative role and there is an emerging recognition that data on assessment can be collected in classrooms and other sites to improve how we, nationally and internationally, do assessment. Enabling teachers to understand that their assumptions can act as a filter or indeed a block, to adaptive ways of thinking and acting in the classroom, serves as a professional development priority.
