The quality of learning: assessment alternatives for primary education

Abstract

Why and how we assess our pupils has an enormous impact on their educational experience and consequently on how and what they learn. This paper provides a critical review of the assessment system in England in the light of evidence from research and practice. It begins by considering the ‘why’ and ‘how’ of assessment and then, in section 3, describes how the various purposes and uses of assessment are met in England, in the other countries of the UK and in France, Sweden and New Zealand. In the fourth section alternative methods of conducting pupil assessment for different purposes are considered in relation to their validity, reliability, impact on learning and teaching and cost. The main points from this analysis are drawn together in the final section, indicating viable alternatives to tests and to the high stakes use of measures of pupil achievement.