Assessment: A Foundation for Effective Learning in the School Context

Progressivism - still the dominant paradigm in education at this time - is under attack. Calls for across-the-board, standardised, external assessment measures are again surfacing. Educators in the United Kingdom, key parts of the United States and in Australia are increasingly faced with calls for a move 'back to basics' - especially when it comes to 'the three Rs'. Many calling for this move maintain that progressive education has failed its 'consumers', especially those most disadvantaged by reason of ethnicity, language, class or gender.