ABSTRACT
Within the current standards-based and accountability paradigm of public education in the USA, teachers are increasingly required to demonstrate confidence in using assessments to form valid judgements about student learning. In response to No Child Left Behind legislation and more recently the US Department of Education’s Race to the Top stimulus programme (Kubiszyn and Borich 2007; US Department of Education 2009), the use of assessments to measure, support and communicate student achievement has emerged as an essential teacher competency, as identified in both professional standards and current research (American Federation of Teachers, National Council on Measurement in Education, and National Education Association [AFT, NCME, and NEA] 1990; National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education 2008). For example, in the state of Florida, the first of the accomplished practices for teachers of the twenty-first century mandates that, ‘the accomplished teacher use assessment strategies (traditional and alternate) to assist the continuous development of the learner’ (Florida Department of Education 2007, 21).
