Assessment in Transition: Learning, Monitoring and Selection in International Perspective

by Angela Little, Abraham Wolf

Educational assessment serves many purposes - selection for further education and employment; monitoring the performance of educational systems; providing diagnostic feedback on the processes of learning. Throughout the world, and in all these ways, more is constantly being demanded of assessment systems. Yet these roles are not always in harmony. Conflicts stem from the wide range of interest groups involved; within given societies, but also, and increasingly, involving the outside world as well. This book explores global and cross-national influences on assessment systems and their likely development. It combines comparative and general analyses with in-depth accounts of a wide range of countries, including those in political and economic transition. Explicit connections are made between general issues and specific cases. "Assessment in Transition: Learning, Monitoring and Selection in International Perspective" explores the factors determining the nature of assessment systems and reform, and the increasing prominence and importance of educational assessment. It provides accounts of the roles of assessment in a range of national contexts. It examines the tensions between the roles of assessment, and how far these are or could be resolved. It is unique in its sustained analysis of emerging international trends, its treatment of national systems and the effects of international agencies' activities, and in applying theories drawn from economics, politics, sociology, statistics and psychology to the subject.

340 pages, Hardcover

First published November 22, 1996