Research Review, CPRT Priority 8
Supported 2014-15 by the Trust
Professor Wynne Harlen, Formerly Professor of Education at the University of Liverpool and Director of the Scottish Council for Research in Education
THE REPORT AND BRIEFING FROM THIS PROJECT ARE NOW AVAILABLE:
Harlen, W. (November 2014) Assessment, Standards and Quality of Learning in Primary Education
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Download briefing/summary
A re-assessment of the research evidence on assessment considered in the CPR final report and CPR research surveys 4/1 (‘Standards and quality in English primary schools: the national evidence’), 4/2 (‘Standards in English primary education: the international evidence’) and 3/4 (‘The quality of learning: assessment alternatives for primary education’). The latter was also undertaken by Wynne Harlen.
Because assessment is such a prominent part of the policy agenda, it is impossible to consider the evidence on assessment in isolation from the trajectory of policy. So the survey will review:
(a) evidence on the purposes, nature and impact of different kinds of assessment, and especially approaches to assessment for learning and accountability which do their job effectively and with minimal collateral damage, and which both provide valid and useful information and enhance children’s learning; (b) evidence on the strengths, weaknesses, impact, uses and abuses of those approaches to and requirements for assessment and testing that have been embedded in policy by successive governments, including the current government’s new assessment and accountability framework.
Further information about Wynne Harlen and CPR’s earlier work on assessment, accountability and standards:
How well are we doing?: Research on standards, quality and assessment in English primary education
Standards and quality in English primary schools over time: The national evidence
Standards in English primary education: The international evidence
The quality of learning: assessment alternatives for primary education
Children, their World, their Education, chapters 16 and 17
The Cambridge Primary Review Research Surveys, chapters 17, 18, 19, 28 and 29.