ABSTRACT
Assessment, and its associated representations, have a dominant presence in education. As but one example, imagine the annual reporting of standardized test scores to parents and communities each spring. Children bring home score reports, while schools, districts, and states provide information about student performance at group levels. Each of these reports is a communication that relies on powerful representational forms that are designed to serve one or more specific purposes—to indicate an individual student’s, school’s, or state’s relative standing, or to identify specific areas of weakness for an individual or group.
