ABSTRACT
In a formal educational setting such as a school, the act of teaching and learning is comprised of two essential components: curriculum and instruction. Curriculum is the set of intended learning outcomes for students. Instruction comprises of the planned and unplanned experiences provided by a teacher that intends to result in the acquisition of a set of intended learning outcomes for students. It is evident to people that many teachers can gain from improving their professional knowledge and skills in the area of classroom assessment. Without assessment, student learning becomes absent from the teaching-and-learning process. In the contemporary public policy arena, the education profession has been strongly buffeted by the forces of the accountability movement. Although schools in the United States have been subject to answering the call of citizens, business leaders, and policymakers to meet the real and perceived needs of society since as far back as Horace Mann's first organization of common schools.
