With the current push for improving education, there is increased demand for accountability on the part of all players in the education structures. Accountability and assessment go hand-in-hand. Traditionally, assessment has been used as an end-of-the-line method of measuring success. The results have been used to justify either approval of or disdain for current practices in any particular classroom, school or district. In the framework of systemic change and continuous improvement, assessment is used to provide useful feedback on current practices and to point out areas for adjustment and enhancements. It is a tool for both those doing the assessing and those being assessed. As such, assessment is a key component in educational governance and practice and is itself continually evolving to meet the needs of the evolving educational context.

This section provides some basic approaches to thinking about assessment in this new model.

In this Module:

In the Toolkit: