From examinations to assessment of student performance

Sir Alec is no doubt referring to experiments in the West Riding and elsewhere which, in the words of the Schools Council, “show that provided that the teachers in a group of schools share certain characteristics (viz discrimination and like‐mindedness), there is good reason to think that they can combine effectively to run a system of examining under which each school sets and marks its own examination or assesses its own course or craft work”. The purpose of this article, which is based on experimental work by the Yorkshire Council for Further Education over many years and particularly since 1963, is to show that a devolution of responsibility for the assessment of student performance is at least as necessary in further education as it is in secondary schools. Nothing less than a major operation by central and local government and teachers will be satisfactory, and this operation will not be mounted if the present centralized, costly, and confusing state of affairs is allowed to continue, otherwise, the vested interests referred to by Sir Alec will see to it that there is endless delay and frustration until the momentum for reform has ground to a halt.