ABSTRACT
While much of the discussion about assessment in this volume has tended to be critical of present practice and to focus upon the problems of ‘testing’, we would like to describe some positive innovations in this area and to shift attention from testing to assessment. We shall describe the development of the Progress Profile, intended initially for use in adult literacy programmes in England and Wales. In order to locate this alternative approach within the wider issues raised in this volume, we provide a brief historical background to adult literacy work in Great Britain, with particular attention to the contrasting educational philosophies in Great Britain and North America.
