ABSTRACT
Good quality assessments are supported by five principles, embodied in the acronym PRICE: Planning and Reflection lead to Improvement, when supported by Cooperation and informed by Evidence. The assessments that are used in judging what language learners are capable of doing should be subject to at least as much careful scrutiny as the language learners’ performance. The concept of the assessment cycle helps clarify the workflow involved in creating and operating an assessment system. The assessment cycle outlines the people engaged in each aspect of an assessment. It links them the documents setting out procedures that each person, or team, needs to follow to ensure that the assessment will generate useful information, lead to well-informed decision making and encourage beneficial consequences. It is crucial that all assessment procedures should be tried out, the results analysed and efforts made to improve their quality over time.
