Assessment Matters

The articles in this issue of Assessment Matters explore assessment practice and ask how those practices known to support learning might be facilitated. One article makes the case for  the development of teachers’ capacities for integrating assessment for learning in the classroom. Two papers focus on primary school teacher practice in the National Standards environment, one analysing the complexities of moderation and another examining how teachers make overall teacher judgements. Another draws on data from the New Zealand National Education Monitoring Project to investigate what makes low-stakes performance tasks appealing to 8 and 12-year-olds in mathematics, information skills and social studies. Elsewhere the challenge of assessing learning for summative and accountability purposes without resorting to national testing is discussed and there’s an indepth look at the use of exemplars for making assessment judgements about students with special learning needs. The issue concludes with a commentary on the big-picture policy direction needed to build teacher and student assessment capability.