ABSTRACT
Assessment made by teachers of pupils’ attainment, knowledge and understanding is called variously teacher assessment (although in the USA this refers to assessment of teachers), school-based assessment and formative assessment. The last of these terms is not always appropriate since ‘formative’ refers to a function rather than the person who makes the assessment: formative assessment can be based on external tests or pupils’ own self-assessment while teacher assessment can be summative rather than formative. There is also in England and Wales the teacherassessed element of National Curriculum assessment called Teacher Assessment (TA).
