Published in 1984, this book brings together the two separate and opposed traditions in the study of educational assessment, the ‘psychometric’ and the ‘educationalist critique’, and attempts to widen the focus of debate in order to situate controversies associated with the topic into a more general understanding of the relationship between school and society.

Part One: Perspectives. 1. School Examinations - Some Sociological Issues, Eggleston. 2. Psychologists and Intelligence Testing in English Education, 1900 – 1940, Sharp. 3. Linking People and Jobs: The Indeterminate Place of Educational Credentials, Dale, Pires. 4. Assessment in the Comprehensive School: What Criteria Count? Turner. 5. Teachers’ Attitudes to Examining: A Case Study, Scarth. 6. Headteachers’ Judgements of Teacher Competence: Principles and Procedures in Ten Inner-city Schools, Grace. 7. Educational versus Managerial Evaluation in Schools, Bates. 8. Children with Learning Difficulties and Assessment in the Junior Classroom, Croll, Moses, Wright. Part Two: Contemporary Policy Issues. 9. Doomsday or a New Dawn? The Prospects for a Common System of Examining at 16+, Nuttall. 10. Teachers, Boards and Standards: The Attack on School-Based Assessment in English Public Examinations at 16+, Bowe, Whitty. 11. From Public Examinations to Profile Assessment: The French Experience, Broadfoot. 12. Towards a Tertiary Tripartism: New Codes of Social Control and the 17+, Ranson. 13. Rendering Accounts: A Critical Analysis of the APU, Hextall.