Beyond Testing : Towards a Theory of Educational Assessment

‘It is an exceptionally thoughtful assessment of assessment, and I am (along with anyone else who broods about education) much in your debt.’ Jerome Bruner, personal communication with the author

When this award-winning book was originally published in 1994, a review in the TES said: ‘Beyond Testing is a refreshingly honest look at the dilemmas facing those who are trying to make educational assessment more supportive of high-quality learning for all pupils and students … It contains powerful and practical messages for assessment developers, policy-makers, teachers and pupils. It exposes the very different agendas of those who wish to achieve greater system-wide accountability through educational assessment, and those who wish to use it to promote improvements in the quality of pupil learning.’

Originally written to re-conceptualize assessment in education in the 1990s, Beyond Testing has stood the test of time and become a classic text in the field. With its examination of the range of uses of assessment – from teacher assessment and standardized testing to formative assessment and norm-referenced testing – to the purposes of assessment – from accountability to support for teaching and learning – the issues it deals with are as enduring and relevant to education now as they were when it was first published. It offers an unsurpassed framework for educational assessment.

Now, re-released as a Routledge Education Classic, and with a new preface from D. Royce Sadler, a new generation of educationalists can be introduced to the developments in educational assessment – arguably one of the most hotly contested areas of education – in order to further their own understanding and practice.

Caroline V. Gipps is an international authority on educational assessment. Originally trained as a psychologist, Caroline worked as a primary school teacher and psychometrician before entering a career in educational research. She worked for a variety of organizations before joining the Institute of Education, University of London, where she spent 19 years as a researcher, Professor of Education and then Dean of Research. During this time Caroline was president of the British Educational Research Association, a member of the RAE panel for Education in 1996, a Nuffield Research Fellow, and holder of several ESRC awards. She moved to Kingston University in 1999 as Deputy Vice-Chancellor and to the University of Wolverhampton as Vice-Chancellor in 2005.