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Testing Tensions: the politics of educational assessment
Author(s) -
Troman Geoff
Publication year - 1989
Publication title -
british educational research journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.171
H-Index - 89
eISSN - 1469-3518
pISSN - 0141-1926
DOI - 10.1080/0141192890150305
Subject(s) - accountability , politics , context (archaeology) , educational assessment , political science , public administration , educational testing , pedagogy , curriculum , policy analysis , sociology , law , paleontology , biology
This paper is concerned with the recent policy initiatives of a National Curriculum, and National Assessment and Testing. These policy intentions are placed in a socio‐political and economic context. It is argued that the two assessment cultures of school‐based teacher assessment (including pupil profiles and records of achievement) and centralised testing lend themselves to professional accountability and market accountability, respectively. The paper concludes that official policy which advocates both modes of assessment, if implemented, will produce intolerable tension within the process of schooling.