ABSTRACT
It is possible to distinguish between different kinds of assessment in terms of their different purposes. Broadly speaking, we can separate assessment used as part of the process of accountability, from assessment used to differentiate between pupils; these are both distinct from the evaluative purpose, when assessment is used to provide the evidence against which to review curriculum, teaching styles, learning opportunities and educational achievements. When assessment became a statutory requirement, for the first time, the prestigious Task Group on Assessment and Testing (DES 1988) described a set of four purposes for assessment: formative, diagnostic, summative and evaluative. Much of the energetic debate that has continued to follow the publication of this report has been concerned with the possibility or, as it is more often argued, the impossibility, of devising forms of assessment that would simultaneously serve all four purposes.
