ABSTRACT

This chapter outlines two assessment-related issues – the measurement contributions that have accrued from the development of a national reporting engine for assessment (asTTle), and research on the conceptions of assessment held by teachers and how this affects their assessment decisions and interpretations.

Assessment relates to the identification of characteristics, and evaluation relates to the establishment of value and worth of a product, process, person, policy or programme. Assessment refers to ‘What’s so?’ and evaluation to ‘So what?’ Both depend on high-quality measurement, and both focus on the qualities, degrees, and characteristics of student learning of the material deemed important by society and identified in the curriculum. The validity and reliability of such assessments and evaluations depend on our ability to specify what is to be learned and defensible measures of progress in each curriculum domain.