ABSTRACT
Records of achievement (RoAs) have grown in importance in assessment systems at all levels of the education and training system, as part of an attempt to provide a better, more extensive account of learners’ achievements. Development of RoAs in schools and colleges throughout the 1980s were given an important government impetus in 1984, with a policy statement by the then Department of Education and Science accompanied by funding for local initiatives to develop RoAs. Further interest was generated by funding for the Technical and Vocational Education Initiative and the Certificate in Pre-Vocational Education, which fostered a great deal of staff and curriculum development activity. This interest reflected a wider concern that assessment could potentially play a much more educational and motivational role than it had in the past. Records of achievement were also seen to provide employers, and other education and training organizations with a better and more accurate account of what learners could actually do, than the traditional reporting of single grades and lists of examination results. They can report on abilities and aptitudes which have been assessed but which are not traditionally reported. The latest manifestation of this movement – the National Record of Achievement for all school leavers – includes the results of summative assessments in the form of examination results, as well as other accounts of achievement.
