ABSTRACT
The assessment of reading is an exception, yet even there teachers find it very difficult to choose tests that are relevant to their approach and their curriculum. Published tests may be reliable, but in the context of the classroom, validity may be suspect. A solution is to design our own test, but there are problems here as well. The eight questions that follow are a guide to producing tests with reliability and validity. Once the purpose of testing is to find out what has been learned, to see whether the underlying content has been understood and the skills mastered, or to select among pupils, care has to be taken or the decisions made may be mistaken. Essay-type questions are rightly popular because they allow pupils to expand their views, but their assessment can still be checked to increase the reliability of assessment without disturbing the chance for the exercise of imagination and individuality.
