Owing to daily work pressures and concerns, many teachers have little opportunity for considering and furthering their understanding of different issues surrounding assessment. Written in a user-friendly, jargon-free style, this text provides the reader with points of growth or change in the field of assessment. Each chapter in the text ends with a section on questions/exercises and further reading.

Paul Black is Professor Emeritus of King's College London. He has been involved in numerous research and development projects in both curriculum and assessment. He contributed to several of the curriculum projects sponsored by the Nuffield Foundation, and has also worked in international projects, notably with the OECD. He was co-director of the national science surveys of the UK Assessment of Performance Unit from 1978 to 1987, and in 1987-88 he was chair of the government Task Group on Assessment and Testing which advised on the new UK policy for national assessment. He is currently a member of the Board on Testing and Assessment of the USA National Academy of Sciences.

Series Editors' Preface 1 Introduction 2 History 3 Purposes 4 Confidence in Assessment-Reliability and Validity 5 What to Test-Norms, Criteria and Domains 6 How to Assess-Methods and Instruments 7 Teachers' Roles in Assessment and Testing 8 Pupils and Assessment 19 Certification and Accountability 10 Conclusions