Towards a Theory of Educational Assessment

‘It is an exceptionally thoughtful assessment of assessment, and I am (along with anyone else who broods about education) much in your debt.’ Jerome Bruner, personal communication with the author

When this award-winning book was originally published in 1994, a review in the TES said: ‘Beyond Testing is a refreshingly honest look at the dilemmas facing those who are trying to make educational assessment more supportive of high-quality learning for all pupils and students … It contains powerful and practical messages for assessment developers, policy-makers, teachers and pupils. It exposes the very different agendas of those who wish to achieve greater system-wide accountability through educational assessment, and those who wish to use it to promote improvements in the quality of pupil learning.’

Originally written to re-conceptualize assessment in education in the 1990s, Beyond Testing has stood the test of time and become a classic text in the field. With its examination of the range of uses of assessment – from teacher assessment and standardized testing to formative assessment and norm-referenced testing – to the purposes of assessment – from accountability to support for teaching and learning – the issues it deals with are as enduring and relevant to education now as they were when it was first published. It offers an unsurpassed framework for educational assessment.

Now, re-released as a Routledge Education Classic, and with a new preface from D. Royce Sadler, a new generation of educationalists can be introduced to the developments in educational assessment – arguably one of the most hotly contested areas of education – in order to further their own understanding and practice.