Assessing students' writing performance is essential to adequately monitor and promote individual writing development, but it is also a challenge. The present research investigates a benchmark rating procedure for assessing texts written by upper-elementary students. In two studies we examined whether a benchmark rating procedure (1) leads to…

This study explores lower secondary school teachers' arguments and perceptions for using a 26-point grading scale (26-PGS), and gender differences in assessment practice. An explanatory sequential design was conducted. First, teachers (n = 6) assessment of students' text (n = 182) was analysed. In the subsequent phase, an open-ended questionnaire…

To mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on teaching and learning, the School Recovery Plan (SRP) was implemented by the Department of Basic Education in South Africa. In this study, we explore the impact of the SRP on teachers' conceptualisation of new and different assessment practices. Data were obtained from 1098 teachers using an…

Writing assessment is a key feature of most education systems, yet there are limitations with traditional methods of assessing writing involving rubrics. In contrast, comparative judgement appears to overcome the reliability issues that beset the assessment of performance assessment tasks. The approach presented here extends previous work on…

Currently, kindergarten education is shaped by two priorities: (1) the recognition that early learning must maintain a developmental orientation and support socio-personal growth; and (2) a growing emphasis on standards-based curriculum and the use of assessment to support children's learning. While some researchers have argued these two…

The last two decades have seen fast-moving and wholescale changes in the ways that education is now provided in French schools, in the nature of learner assessment, and in the form and scale of system evaluation. Innovation and reform have in part followed international trends, themselves triggered by the global impact of the international…

In this study, we aim to understand the forces driving assessment for learning (AfL) in primary school teaching. By applying a case study design, including the two cases of Norway and Portugal and using mathematics teaching as an example, available policy documents and research reports are analysed to identify the differences and similarities that…

As schools become living sites of evidence-based practice, teachers increasingly accumulate large quantities of observations and records. In these times of an overabundance of documentation, there is a need to find the "unit of analysis" that determines the essence of what matters for assessment. In drawing upon cultural-historical…

This exploratory study of elementary school science examines questions central to policy, practice and research on formative assessment: What is the quality of teachers' content-pedagogical and assessment knowledge? What is the relationship between teacher knowledge and assessment practice? What is the relationship between teacher knowledge,…