ABSTRACT
Assessment is complex, multifaceted and is one of the most debated areas of educational discourse. This chapter looks at assessments that take place within the classroom with a particular focus on how assessment can be used on a minute-by-minute basis to improve teaching and learning. National curriculum levels were introduced in 1988 and were originally designed to deliver an assessment process that measured pupils’ achievement on a 10-level-based national framework. In 2014, with the revised national curriculum for England, levels were removed and schools were required to establish their own approaches to curriculum assessment. Despite the intention for use only in statutory national assessments, all too frequently levels also became used for in-school assessment between key stages in order to monitor whether pupils were on track to achieve expected levels at the end of the key stages.
