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ASSESSMENT AND REPORTING
CELEBRATING STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT
4TH EDITION
This new edition reflects on current and enduring debates,

and provides students and beginning teachers with
ASSESSMENT
AND REPORTING
theoretical and practical understandings of
assessment and reporting.
STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT
CELEBRATING
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Laurie Brady is a professor in the Faculty of Arts and Social
Sciences at the University of Technology, Sydney. He has extensive 4TH EDITION
experience in classroom teaching and teacher education, and is an
author of the successful text Curriculum Construction.
LAURIE BRADY & KERRY KENNEDY
Kerry Kennedy is Chair Professor of Curriculum Studies at the
Hong Kong Institute of Education. He has been President of the
Australian Curriculum Studies Association and is also an author
of the successful text Curriculum Construction.
4
KERRY KENNEDY
LAURI E B RA DY &
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ASSESSMENT
AND REPORTING
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Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
Author: Brady, Laurie, 1947-

Title: Assessment and reporting : celebrating student achievement/
Laurie Brady, Kerry Kennedy.
Edition: 4th ed.
ISBN: 9781442546813 (pbk)
ISBN: 9781488679759 (Vital Source)
Notes: Includes index.
Subjects: Educational tests and measurements.
Educational evaluation.
Other Authors/
contributors: Kennedy, Kerry.
Dewey Number: 371.26
Every effort has been made to trace and acknowledge copyright. However, should any infringement have occurred,
the publishers tender their apologies and invite copyright owners to contact them.
Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd ABN 40 004 245 943
ASSESSMENT
AND REPORTING
4TH EDITION
L A U R I E B R A D Y & K E R RY K E NNE DY
DEDICATION
Laurie dedicates this work to Julia.
Kerry dedicates this work to Zoe, Jamie, Oliver and Henry

who are the new generation to whom we look for the future.
CONTENTS
Preface x
Acknowledgments xi
C HAP TE R ONE 1
Contexts for Assessment and Reporting
The multiple contexts influencing assessment and reporting 2
The outcomes of schooling 5
Economic contexts 6
Equity and social contexts 7
Accountability 9
Personal fulfilment and satisfaction 10
Summary 12
Questions and exercises 12
References 12
C HAP TE R T WO 14
Principles of Assessment for Learning
The role of assessment 15
Types of assessment and their purposes 15
The contexts for different types of assessment 19
The reporting of outcomes for different types of assessment 20
General principles for assessment and reporting 23
The educational purposes of assessment and reporting 27
Summary 27
References 28
C HAP TE R T HREE 30
Assessment and Teaching—Providing Feedback to Enhance Learning
Key concepts and issues for assessment 31
Designing valid, reliable and fair assessment 31
Educational values underpinning assessment and reporting 35
External contexts influencing assessment and reporting 39
Assessment, accountability and politics 39
School reform and the economy 39
Schools and their social purposes 40
Summary 41
References 41
vi C O N T ENTS
C HAP TE R F OUR 43
Strategies for Assessing Student Achievement in the Classroom
Traditional and authentic assessment 44
Strategies 45
A. Tests 46
1 Multiple-choice tests 48
2 True–false tests 50
3 Short-answer tests 51
4 Matching tests 53
5 Cloze tests 54
6 Interpretive tests 54
7 Concept maps 55
8 Essays/extended writing 56
9 Interviews/conferences 58
B. Performance assessment 58
10 Anecdotal records 60
11 Checklists 61
12 Rating scales 62
C. Product assessment 63
13 Portfolios 63
14 Exhibitions 67
15 Projects 68
Criteria for selecting strategies 69
Common assessment errors 71
Summary 71
References 72
C HAP TE R F IVE 76
Strategies for Self- and Peer Assessment
The link with learning 77
The benefits of self-assessment 77
The benefits of peer assessment 78
Implementing self- and peer assessment 79
Essentials 80
Context 81
Strategies 81
CONTENTS vii
Journals 81
Process portfolios 82
Contracts 82
Self-assessment proformas 83
Physical continuums 84
Presentations 84
Conferencing 84
Student-led reporting 84
Joint marking 84
‘Traffic lights’ 84
The student response 84
Summary 85
References 86
C HAP TE R S IX 88
Records of Assessment
Recording and assessment 89
Why should record keeping be a priority in schools? 89
Methods of record keeping 92
Technology and record keeping 95
Summary 97
References 97
C HAP TE R S EVEN 99
Principles and Strategies for Reporting Student Achievement in the Classroom
Purposes 100
Principles 101
What parents want 103
Cyclical needs 104
Contextual needs 104
Social information needs 105
Reporting requirements 105
Strategies 106
Reports 106
Marks 107
viii C O N T ENTS
Letter grades 107

Ranks 107
Words 108
Outcomes 108
Interviews 109
The teacher–parent interview 109
The teacher–student interview 111
The student–parent interview 111
The teacher–student–parent interview 113
Portfolios 113
School-wide reporting 115
Brochures 116
Newsletters 116
Open days, speech nights and assemblies 116
Classroom visits and classroom/in-school displays 116
Out-of-school displays/performances 116
Policy statements/curriculum and program documents 116
Homework 117
Formal school meetings 117
Social occasions 117
School–university partnerships 117
Summary 117
References 118
C HAP TE R E IGHT 121

The National Curriculum and NAPLAN
The national curriculum: Background 122
The national curriculum: Shape 122
The national curriculum: Assessment and reporting 124
NAPLAN: Assessment 125
NAPLAN: Reporting 126
NAPLAN: Using the reported data 127
School systems 128
Schools 128
CONTENTS ix
Teachers 129
Students 129
Summary 129
References 130
C HAP TE R NINE 132

The National Assessment Plan (NAP) and Other Forms of External Assessment
for Australian Students
External assessment in Australia: Background 133
The National Assessment Plan: A new direction for external testing in Australia 135
International assessments: Benchmarking the performance of Australian students 138
Conclusion 141
Summary 141
References 142
C HAP TE R T EN 144
Cases of Assessment and Reporting Practice
Mark: Assessment as formal process 145
Case questions 147
Alyssa: Assessment as informal and performance-based 147
Case questions 148
Carol: Assessment for all learning 149
Case questions 150
Sally: Assessment as multiple strategies 150
Case questions 151
Robert: Assessment as scaffolding 152
Case questions 153
Robyn: Assessment for self-directed learners 153
Case questions 154
Summary 155
Index 156
PREFACE
Arguably, there has never been a greater emphasis on the importance of assessment in Australian
schools. Assessment is regarded formatively as an ongoing part of teaching and learning, and
summatively as a demonstration of the achievement of outcomes to satisfy different account
ability mandates.
Assessment and Reporting: Celebrating Student Achievement provides a timely analysis of

assessment and reporting within two different contexts: increased accountability required by
governments and a greater focus on authentic assessment that facilitates student learning.
These two contexts are not necessarily complementary and provide unique challenges for
teachers.
The book examines the nature of assessment and reporting and the relationship to learning;
it defines key terms, enunciates principles, and describes a range of strategies that respond to
the more formal approaches to testing as well as recent approaches to authentic assessment,
including peer and self-assessment. It also examines the Australian government’s external
testing program, and the assessment and reporting implications of the national curriculum.
Assessment and reporting practice is analysed within the context of six cases that have the
benefit of presenting practice as problematic and situated.
This fourth edition preserves the same basic structure as the previous three, though two
additional chapters analyse the federal government’s external testing mandate within the
context of a national curriculum.
We believe that Assessment and Reporting: Celebrating Student Achievement captures with
fidelity the reality of assessment and reporting policy as well as practice in Australian schools,
reflects the concerns of the contemporary assessment literature and articulates the complex
issues relating to assessment and reporting.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We would like to thank all of the reviewers whose valuable suggestions for previous editions
have helped us to produce the final product you see here. We would especially like to thank
the following reviewers for contributing their time and expertise by providing feedback for this
edition:
Denise Dillon-Smith, University of Notre Dame

Jenny Dwyer, Charles Sturt University
Sally Knipe, Charles Sturt University
Karen Noble, University of Southern Queensland
Simon Shaw, University of Tasmania
Geoff Shacklock, RMIT University
Roger Vallance, Australian Catholic University
Laurie Brady
Kerry Kennedy
This page is intentionally left blank.
CHAPTER 1
CONTEXTS FOR
OBJECTIVES
By the end of this chapter, you should be able to:
o account for the interest of international, national and local communities in assessment and
reporting
o identify the stakeholders in assessment and reporting and their different concerns
o differentiate between the theoretical
perspectives underlying assessment and
reporting
o consider the relationship between theory and
practice in assessment
o appreciate the roles of assessment and
reporting in relation to the social, economic
and political contexts in which they operate.
Assessment is the process that monitors students’

learning progress; and reporting makes the results
available to a variety of audiences. These are key
aspects of the school curriculum. In recent times
they have received a great deal of emphasis from
politicians, the business world and the community
at large. Part of this interest has to do with the
importance the community attaches to the outcomes
of schooling, and part with the apparent mistrust
of schools and teachers by the business community and sometimes the community at large. Schools
are expected to produce graduates who can meet the multiple expectations that society has of the
schooling process, and this goal is important not only to teachers but to different stakeholders in the
community. Some of the interest in assessment and reporting is a natural inclination on the part of
parents to be better informed about the progress that their children are making in school. Assessment
and reporting may originate as private interactions between teachers and students. Yet, at the same
time, they are also public processes that are open to scrutiny and questioning. Social, political and
economic contexts help to shape assessment and reporting policy which in turn influences practice. It
is these broad contexts that are the subject of this chapter.
2 A S S ESS M E N T A ND R EPORT I NG
T H E M U LT I P L E C O N T E X T S I N F L U E N C I N G
Assessment is a pervasive activity in society and can take a variety of forms. It can be carried out
by professionals such as teachers, doctors, human resources consultants, psychologists, weather
forecasters, wine tasters and music critics. Assessment requires professionals to make a judg-
ment: it might be a judgment a doctor makes about a patient’s illness, having reviewed all the
evidence, or an art critic’s judgment about a new work of art. The purpose of these judgments,
irrespective of context, is to provide an assessment—of the patient or the work of art. Such an
assessment informs different audiences—the patient, the patient’s family, or art lovers and artists.
It can also provide the basis for further action, such as prescribing appropriate health care or
identifying similar characteristics in other works of art. Professional judgments are made all the
time across a great range of activities.
Assessment is not only the province of professionals; it is also an everyday activity. We make
judgments about the quality of service we receive, the food we eat and the books we read. We
select which movie to see based on the assessment of a film critic, we buy perfume after making
an assessment of its fragrance, and we buy clothes based on an assessment of the extent to which
they suit us. The criteria for these judgments are not always explicit and often vary from person
to person, but in the course of a day we make many such judgments.
For teachers, however, assessment activities are more restricted. They are directly related
to the school curriculum, to teaching and to what students learn. Such activities might be
informal and take place in the classroom, for example questions and answers, observations or
judgments made about particular work samples. They might be more formal and include the
marking of essays, teacher-devised tests or assessment of a portfolio of completed work. They
might be very formal and include standardised tests, high-stakes examinations (e.g. the Higher
School Certificate) or international surveys of student knowledge (e.g. Trends in International
Mathematics and Science Study). Students are subject to a broad range of assessment activities,
and it will be useful at this point to review some of the technical terminology associated with
assessment and reporting. This terminology is summarised in Table 1.1.
Blackmore (1988, p. 5) has differentiated between the educational objectives of assessment
and the instrumental objectives. The educational aspects of assessment are concerned with
gathering information on student progress in such a way that it can be used by teachers (and
parents) to help students improve their learning. This might involve providing feedback to
students so they can better understand what they need to do to improve their performance.
The instrumental aspects of assessment are related to its ‘sifting’ and ‘sorting’ function. For
example, one of the outcomes of ‘high-stakes assessment’ is to provide cut-off scores that will help
universities decide who will be given a place and who will not. Within schools, the results of a
teacher-made test might be to group students into different ability classes. It is the instrumental
aspects of assessment that have drawn the most criticism from educators (Broadfoot 1979), but
there is little sign that these instrumental purposes have been ameliorated over time. What this
alerts us to is the fact that assessment takes place within, and is often constructed by, broader
social, political and economic purposes and contexts.
Broadfoot (1981, p. 202), for example, made the point that ‘Assessment procedures are the
vehicle whereby the dominant rationality of the corporate capitalist societies . . . is translated into
the structures and process of schooling’. She is supported in her views by populist writers such as
1 CONTEXTS FOR ASSESSMENT AND REPORTING 3
Holt (1969) and by academic neo-Marxist writers such as Bowles and Gintis (1976). Other writers,
such as Murphy and Torrance (1990), and indeed Broadfoot herself (Black and Broadfoot 1982),
have sought a middle ground between recognising the function of instrumental approaches to
assessment and seeking to support teachers in their key educational role in relation to assessment.
Yet the broader contexts of assessment cannot be forgotten and will be the focus of the remainder
of this chapter. These contexts will provide a background against which to consider the more
detailed chapters on assessment practices and strategies.
Table 1.1 Technical terms relating to assessment
Norm-referenced assessment Rank orders the performance of individual students.

This displays the range of performance and enables
comparison of different levels of performance. The
process can also involve comparing the performance
of groups with similar or different characteristics (e.g.
in terms of age, gender, ethnicity or socioeconomic
status).
Criterion-referenced assessment Shows how an individual student’s performance
compares with some predefined criterion or goal. Its
function is to demonstrate what students know and are
able to do; it does not seek to compare students.
Standards-based assessment Uses criterion-referencing to show a student’s
performance in relation to expected levels of
achievement at a specific grade level or stage of
schooling.
Standardised test A test that is developed, administered, scored and
interpreted according to a common set of procedures.
It is often used with large samples of students and
may involve successive administrations over time. The
results from different samples can be reliably compared.
Such tests can be either norm-referenced or criterion-
referenced.
Traditional assessment Involves the use of paper-and-pencil tests that ask
students to choose responses from alternative answers
(e.g. multiple-choice questions, true/false questions,
fill-in-the-blanks, matching exercises).
Alternative assessment Students demonstrate their level of achievement by
creating a response or a product (e.g. essay, painting,
oral presentation, open-ended question, group
projects).
Performance-based assessment An alternative form of assessment that engages students
in tasks and activities (e.g. role-play, debate, playing a
musical instrument, contributing to group work, dramatic
performance). Judgments are made through direct
observation of performance.
Table 1.1 Continued
Authentic assessment Refers to the quality of assessment tasks and requires

students to be engaged in ‘real world’ activities such as
those they are likely to encounter as part of daily living.
The focus is on the context of the task.
Portfolio assessment An alternative form of assessment based on a
collection of student work samples or products
collected over time to demonstrate progress in learning.
For such assessment, the purposes need to be clearly
stated, the criteria for including work samples need to
be articulated, and the criteria or standards for judging
performance need to be agreed.
Formative assessment Provides feedback to students about the progress they
are making in learning new concepts, skills or attitudes.
It can take place during the teaching/learning process
or as structured feedback on work samples submitted
by students. Such feedback can assist students to
improve their learning and can also help teachers to
develop new and more effective ways of teaching.
Summative assessment Takes place at the end of a unit of work, a subject or
a course, and indicates the extent to which expected
learning outcomes have been achieved.
Reliability Refers to the assessment’s consistency and stability.
The assessment result should be the same irrespective
of when, where and how the assessment was taken,
who marked it and when it was marked. The reliability
of assessment can be enhanced when possible sources
of error are minimised. Multiple assessment tasks,
agreed assessment criteria, and the use of moderation
procedures all help to ensure that assessment is
consistent and therefore reliable.
Validity The extent to which an assessment task accurately
reflects the knowledge, skills and values being
assessed. Tasks linked to curriculum objectives and
outcome statements should have a high degree of
validity. Such tasks, however, must also be fair to
all students so that the content of the task does not
favour one group of students over another.
The remaining sections will consider assessment in relation to:

• the outcomes of schooling
• economic contexts
• equity and social contexts
• accountability
• personal fulfilment and satisfaction.
THE OUTCOMES OF SCHOOLING

Everyone has a stake in the outcomes of schooling: students, parents, business and industry,
governments and society. As a whole and individually, all of these groups feel the need to be
aware of the progress that is being made in students’ learning. Assessment is the means by which
that learning can be monitored and improved, and reporting is the means by which stakeholders
can be made aware of the progress that is being made. But why is there so much interest in the
outcomes of schooling? Different groups have different answers to this question.
For individual students, what they learn during the schooling process will set them on
their way for the future. It will not determine their future exclusively, as the education and
training system is now so constructed with multiple entry points. Yet there is now no doubt that
post-school qualifications of some kind will be essential for young people if they are to have a
satisfying and rewarding life. It is the school experience that provides the foundations for lifelong
learning that will characterise society in the 21st century.
Parents take a natural interest in the progress being made by their children. They entrust
their children to schools and teachers for the most formative years of their children’s lives. They
need to be informed on a regular basis how their children are progressing in the different areas
of the school curriculum. Parents always want what is best for their children, and their influence
on the learning process cannot be underestimated. Parents can be powerful supports for teachers
in helping children to reach their potential.
The owners of business and industry take an unashamed interest in the extent to which young
people leaving school can contribute directly to their economic activities. They are concerned with
knowledge and skills that can be applied immediately to specific work requirements. Increasingly,
business and industry have come to rely on a skilled workforce.
Governments have a responsibility towards all members of society, and it is natural that they
should take an interest in what students are learning as a result of their school experiences. One
reason is that expenditure on education represents a sizeable proportion of current-day budgets, so
it is not unreasonable for governments to want to monitor that expenditure. Another reason is that
governments have responsibility for the social and economic life of a nation, and the outcomes
of schooling need to feed productively into those spheres.
Society as a whole takes an interest in the outcomes of schooling because young people are
the citizens of the future. Society has constructed values around such things as democracy, the
rule of law, particular forms of cultural expression, citizens’ rights and responsibilities, the dignity
of all human beings and the celebration of difference. These values can be at risk if young people
leaving school are not aware of them. The continuation of our political and social systems, and
indeed civil society itself, is dependent on an informed and active citizenry. For society as a whole,
this is one of the most significant outcomes of schooling.
It is this backdrop that confronts teachers when it comes to assessment and reporting. The
main features of these stakeholder interests are summarised in Table 1.2.
It should be clear from Table 1.2 that teachers may be confronted with a difficult task, as the
stakeholder interests depicted are not always easily reconcilable. This may also help to explain why
there are often criticisms of schools: different stakeholders have different expectations. In addition,
taking Blackmore’s (1988) distinction between ‘educational’ and ‘instrumental’ purposes of
assessment, it seems that external stakeholders are overwhelmingly instrumental in their approach
to assessment. Teachers, it appears, stand in a special relationship to assessment. In one sense they
Table 1.2 Stakeholder interests in the outcomes of schooling
Stakeholder Interest
Students Life chances that are personally fulfilling and rewarding.

Parents Success in all spheres of life and activity.
Business Specific knowledge and skills to ensure the growth and
development of the business and industry.
Government Efficient and effective use of funds so as to achieve broad social
and economic objectives.
Society The development of future citizens who will recognise the ongoing
need for values that support the basic institutions on which society
has been built.
might be seen as the guardians of the educational function of assessment. This guardianship has
the potential to bring them into conflict with external stakeholders. Nevertheless, they too can
use assessment for instrumental purposes—for example in determining ability groups for subject
selection. The main point here is that assessment provides the means by which the outcomes of
schooling can be monitored by different groups. Thus assessment, and the way assessment results
are reported, cannot help but be matters of public interest and concern.
Concern with the outcomes of schooling is deeply embedded in the social, economic and
political contexts of the modern nation. The following sections will explore these contexts in
some detail.
ECONOMIC CONTEXTS
There is little doubt that, in the 21st century, the concerns of the economy remain dominant in
the community’s thinking. Despite the apparent success of the Australian economy, the slightest
movement in exchange rates or the current account deficit attracts media attention. Terms such
as ‘international competitiveness’ still fall easily from the lips of Australian politicians, as they do
with politicians throughout the world. Yet, this new century brings different concerns from those
of earlier centuries. Pusey (1991) quite rightly pointed to the influence of economic rationalism
on government policy during the 1980s, and to the downsizing of government departments and
interests that took place as a result. Similar downsizing took place in the private sector as busi-
ness sought to become ‘lean and mean’, as though efficiency in itself was a creator of the new
income streams on which business depended. This approach to economic management is now
as outdated as the old computers that were in use at the time.
Tapscott (1996) has pointed to the fundamental changes that have taken place in the
economy in a short period of time. These changes have been brought about by two significant
influences: first, a general commitment to free trade on the part of most governments throughout
the world, with the result that trade barriers have significantly lessened in the past two decades;
and, second, the so-called digital revolution, which is moving at such a pace that even if there
were significant trade barriers in place they would be quickly overcome by Internet transactions,
e-commerce and the rapidity of modern telecommunications. Governments are now faced with
the development of a ‘knowledge economy’ that, in Tapscott’s terms, is ‘based on the application
of human know-how to everything we produce and how we produce it’ (p. 7). The ‘knowledge
economy’ depends on smart people using their intellectual capital to solve problems, form new
ways of doing things, and create new products for an increasingly consumer-oriented society.
So, what does this have to do with assessment and reporting? The most immediate relationship
between the emergence of a ‘knowledge economy’ and assessment and reporting is that the latter
are the means by which society is able to monitor the development of its skills and knowledge
base. Assessment and reporting are able to inform society about the progress young people are
making in school. Assessment provides some measure of that progress, and reporting makes that
measure publicly available and capable of being contested. In an age where national economic
development is integrally linked to an educated population, assessment and reporting provide
indicators of how capable young people are of making a contribution to national growth and
development. These are not the only purposes of assessment and reporting, as will be shown later.
But, in terms of the economy, this is the function they are able to perform. Such a function may
well explain why governments internationally have taken an unprecedented interest in assessment
issues in recent times (Brady and Kennedy 2010).
While notions of the ‘knowledge economy’ and ‘information revolution’ are relatively
recent, the theoretical underpinnings that relate them to school education are not. Whether it
is the industrial economy or the knowledge economy, the function of schools in producing
skilled labour for the first and knowledge workers who can value-add for the second is similar. A
crucial function for schools has always been to provide the economy with workers and professionals
who can contribute productively to economic activity. The requirements of those workers may well
be different in a ‘knowledge economy’, and a ‘knowledge economy’ may well require generally
higher levels of aggregate skills, but the general need remains. Assessment and reporting are the
mechanisms that indicate how well schools are performing this particular function.
In theoretical terms, this function has been underpinned by human capital theory. This
theory had its roots in post–Second World War thinking about the factors that influence economic
development. It was postulated that investment in education would have a rate of return such that,
as the aggregate level of skills in a society grew, so would economic activity and development.
The theory has a certain face validity, and there have been many empirical studies that have tried
to demonstrate the relationship. Even though the empirical support for the theory is contested,
policy makers in Australia have not been reluctant to express their belief in education’s capacity
to contribute to economic growth and development. Thus when the Australian Labor Party
announced its education policy in the lead-up to the 2007 election it was entitled ‘The Australian
Economy Needs an Education Revolution’ (Australian Labor Party 2007). However, investment
in education on the part of government is a two-edged sword: it brings more funds, but it also
brings greater scrutiny. It is for this reason that we now see national assessment of numeracy and
literacy (see Chapter 8 for further details on this issue). This assessment allows students’ learning
progress to be monitored on a regular basis and for reports to be made to students, their parents
and the community. This is the price to be paid for further investment in schools and education.
EQUITY AND SOCIAL CONTEXTS

Governments of all persuasions have focused their attention on economic issues in recent times,
and this is understandable given the vagaries of economic theory and economic development.
Yet, schools are more than instruments of economic development: they also serve significant
social purposes. These purposes were recognised in The Melbourne Declaration on Educational
Goals for Young Australians. Goal 1 signalled a commitment on the part of Australian govern-
ments to promoting equity and excellence in schooling. This involved, among other things, a
commitment to:
• ensure that socioeconomic disadvantage ceases to be a significant determinant of
educational outcomes
• reduce the effect of other sources of disadvantage, such as disability, homelessness, refugee
status and remoteness
• ensure that schooling contributes to a socially cohesive society that respects and
appreciates cultural, social and religious diversity. (Ministerial Council on Education,
Employment, Training and Youth Affairs 2008)
From at least one perspective, the new economic imperatives have also highlighted the
significance of the social role of schools:
Given the changing role of the State in relation to economic development, does this necessarily
imply significant changes to the social role of schools? Is there any reason to suggest that all
of the traditional social roles of schools need to be abandoned in light of new economic
imperatives for governments? Might it not be argued that given the fast pace of economic
change and development, the social role of schools will be even more important for young
people seeking to locate themselves in a fast moving global society? (Kennedy 1999, p. 11)
The argument advanced by Kennedy (1999) is that schools need to act as ‘social anchors’,
providing young people with, among other things, a set of agreed and common values that
will provide certainty in a fast-changing world. Assessment plays a fundamental role in relation
to such social purposes. Because of the instrumental functions referred to earlier, assessment
practices have the potential to advantage some and disadvantage others. It is important, therefore,
that assessment practices operate equitably for all individuals and groups. Otherwise, they will
contribute to the general uncertainty that characterises our times and may lead to inequities in
the educational system.
That there is a potential for assessment to operate inequitably is well documented in the
literature. Berends and Koretz (1996) have reported that the National Assessment of Educational
Progress in the United States seriously undervalued social context variables and hence under
estimated the achievements of minority students. Here in Australia, it has become recognised that
certain kinds of testing (e.g. multiple-choice tests) tend to favour boys over girls. It also appears
that the kind of high-stakes testing used to select students for university entrance favours students
from high socioeconomic areas over those from low socioeconomic areas. Inequities can also be
seen when students whose first language is not English are required to take tests in English. Such
students are at a disadvantage before they even start the test. These are not easy issues to address,
but they alert us to the social issues that can have an impact on assessment practice.
Assessment can also point to inequities. The National School English Literacy Survey
conducted in 1996 showed very poor results for Indigenous students. It also showed that almost
29 per cent of the Indigenous sample came from homes where English was not always spoken, and
that records of school attendance were very poor for many students in the sample (Department of
Employment, Education, Training and Youth Affairs 1997). Such results do not in any way begin
to provide a solution: that is not the function of assessment. But they do highlight a problem that
urgently needs to be addressed. What is more, these particular results make explicit what many
teachers have known for a long time.
What seems to be well accepted now is that assessment operates differentially in relation
to different social groups. Thus the question teachers need to ask is whether the results they are
getting based on different kinds of assessment practices are a true indicator of a student’s learning,
or whether they might be caused by some other factor such as race, gender, ethnicity or level of
poverty. That is to say, assessment outcomes need to be subjected to a reality check. They do not
‘speak for themselves’ and they rarely speak unambiguously.
Assessment therefore has the potential to influence the social contexts of students in different
ways. It can actually exacerbate social problems if assessment outcomes are interpreted outside
of the social contexts they inevitably influence. Thus, assessment has to be used with care and in
such a way that unintended social outcomes are not created. On the other hand, assessment can
alert us to potential social problems and inequities and provide the grounds on which specific
action can be taken.
A C C O U N TA B I L I T Y
There is little doubt that accountability has become one of the catchcries of our times. In edu-
cational circles, assessment has become one of the chief means by which governments have
engaged in what can loosely be called ‘processes of accountability’. Processes of accountability
are related to student learning (what students know and are able to do), the expenditure of public
funds, and aligning educational outcomes with the perceived needs of society and the economy.
Teachers play a central role in accountability processes and are often held to be accountable
for the broad outcomes of schooling. Thus, some understanding of how accountability mecha-
nisms are developed and how they operate is important.
The National Assessment Program—Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) is a good example
of assessment used for accountability purposes. Such testing provides for education systems (and
their political masters) a measure of the ‘health’ of the system. Education systems can pinpoint
social groups, schools and regions that are not meeting acceptable levels in basic skills, and
appropriate action can then be taken. Such measures are also fed back directly to parents so that
they too can get some idea of how their children are performing in relation to accepted standards
of performance. Teachers are able to gain information about their classes, and about individuals
within their classes. That the measures are ‘objective’, that they have been applied throughout
a particular jurisdiction and that they are made available to key stakeholders makes the process
explicit and transparent.
It is fortunate that Australian education authorities have not gone as far as their counterparts
in the United States and the United Kingdom, where such results are often published in the local
newspapers. This additional type of ‘media accountability’ brings schools into the public gaze in an
unfortunate way, and all sorts of conclusions are drawn about assessment outcomes. In particular,
schools are often ranked according to the test scores of their students without regard for the social
composition of the schools, their resource levels, or the broader cultural context in which they
are operating. Such accountability is of an extreme kind, reflecting the lack of confidence that
many communities have in their schools and teachers. It also reflects an ignorance about the
purpose and function of assessment.
Education system authorities have become increasingly concerned with developing and
refining accountability mechanisms. In the government sector these authorities are answerable
to the broader processes of government, especially when it comes to securing funds to finance
educational expenditure. Often, they are dealing with Treasuries and Departments of Finance
that recognise only one thing—the rate of return on expenditure. Student learning outcome
measures can often be used to demonstrate that the education system is being monitored and that
incremental gains are being made. Such reasons may not hold much educational sway, but in
a tense environment concerned with resource allocation they may swing an argument. What is
more, taxpayers are probably supportive of any mechanisms that seek to enhance the responsible
allocation of their resources.
Another perspective on accountability can be seen in the effort that was made in Australia
to develop national curriculum statements and profiles (Kennedy 1995). The impetus for this
move was to obtain some kind of national consistency in the school curriculum, an issue that has
been revived by the current Commonwealth government. The movement from the development
of national curriculum statements (an outline of the content of the curriculum) to national
curriculum profiles (what students should know and be able to do at different levels of schooling)
raised the accountability dimension of the exercise. Schools and teachers were being tied into
learning outcomes that were designed to be applied across the country. That is to say, teachers
were to be held accountable for producing learning outcomes in students that were consistent
with the nationally developed profiles. Much has happened since that time, but the emergence
of a national curriculum is a reflection of the importance now placed on what students should
learn. The specification of learning outcome statements is one way to hold both teachers and
schools accountable for student learning outcomes.
Linn (1998, p. 2) has pointed out that, from a policy maker’s perspective, assessment has a
number of advantages as an accountability tool. It is relatively inexpensive (compared with, for
example, raising teachers’ salaries in order to attract high-quality graduates to the profession), it
can be externally mandated and rapidly implemented, and results can be made highly visible.
Yet the warning from Madaus, Raczek and Clarke (1997, p. 22), that ‘the idea of any testing
technique—be it new test design or a national test or system—can reform our schools and restore
our nation’s competitiveness is the height of technological arrogance and conceals many of the
negative possibilities of such a move under the guise of a seemingly neat technological fix’, is an
important reminder about the limits of assessment and the politics of school reform.
PERSONAL FULFILMENT AND SATISFACTION

Older, progressive notions of education saw its function primarily in terms of nurturing and
developing individuals to their full capacity and making use of their complete range of talents.
Of course, such views, when they were originally developed in the 18th century, applied to an
elite group that was privileged enough to have access to education. Today, with mass education
the norm, the emphasis on personal fulfilment as an outcome of education does not seem to
rank very highly. Yet for individual students, and indeed their parents, the personal dimension of
education cannot be ignored.
Smith and Goodwin (1997) catch some of this personal dimension when they refer to the
need for assessment to be responsive to the needs of individual students. Perhaps more importantly,
they see children as individuals whom they have to get to know on a daily basis. They recognise
that the child they know one day may be different the next. In this context, assessment means
being ever alert to where children are, how they are responding to lessons and activities, and
how they are or are not progressing. There is nothing scientific about this kind of assessment: it
is based on developing a relationship with students, knowing who they are, and being interested
in who they are to become. Student-centred assessment involves being in ‘constant conversation
with the children about the sense they are making of their work, what it is they are learning and
doing’ (Smith and Goodwin 1997, p. 103).
Student-centred assessment has its theoretical origins in progressivist notions of education
popularised by philosophers such as John Dewey. Today, such views have their advocates among
constructivist educators—people who believe that children are able to construct their own
knowledge in meaningful ways. According to this view, children make meaning of the world
around them and they do so in deliberate and purposeful ways. This meaning-making process
may not always be consistent with the requirements of nationally developed curricula, but it is
personal and responsive to the external environment. It is easy to see why advocates of student-
centred assessment find recent developments in curriculum and assessment practice difficult to
accept. The assumption that all children should reach a particular level of learning at the same
time is quite repugnant to views that highlight individual growth and development. But, in the
real world, teachers have to live with the external constraints imposed by education systems
while pursuing their own personal views and practices. The resulting tension can be stressful for
teachers and students alike.
Another perspective on the importance of the personal dimension to assessment comes
from Genishi (1997), who focused on the challenge of the post-modern world. At its heart, post-
modernism is about the reification of the individual rather than the group, the personal story
rather than the grand narrative, the startlingly new rather than the taken-for-granted, the powerless
rather than the powerful, and liberation from rather than adherence to tradition. Thus, Genishi
draws on psychologists such as Bruner (1996) and Kelly (1991) to highlight the importance of
the personal construction of meaning by children. In this context, assessment has to deal with
individual students. And it also has to do with individual teachers, as it cannot be assumed, from
a post-modern perspective, that teachers will perceive children in identical ways. Genishi asserts
that ‘a post-modern frame must accommodate the fundamental shift in ways of looking at the
person—both the person who is the assessor and who is the assessed. Both are capable of actively
constructing their own theories of the world and their unique interpretations of situations’ (1997,
p. 46). Neither standardised tests nor national curriculum can be accommodated within this
frame of reference. Rather, assessment becomes an entirely personal transaction between teacher
and students.
Such approaches to assessment, of course, place considerable demands on teachers. Large
class sizes, competing demands for time within the classroom, and the constant external calls for
accountability and standards mean that teachers will always feel pulled in multiple directions. It
will probably continue to be the case that teachers will be called on to submit their students to all
kinds of external assessment regimens (e.g. basic skills testing, standardised literacy and numeracy
tests, tests of civic knowledge), as well as carrying out personalised assessments on a day-to-day
basis. Perhaps the most significant challenge for teachers is not to let one form of assessment
replace the other: different forms of assessment will need to exist side by side to meet the many
demands made of schools, teachers and students.
SUMMARY
• There are broad social, political and economic contexts that help to shape assessment
reporting practices in schools. This is a reflection of the fact that everyone in the
community has a stake in the outcomes of schooling: politicians, businesspeople, social
activists and, not least, students and parents.
• Theoretical perspectives such as progressivism, post-modernism and human capital theory
help to elucidate these contexts. Some theoretical perspective usually drives stakeholders’
views of assessment and reporting.
• Teachers need to develop their own response to assessment and reporting issues within
the particular school context in which they find themselves. Such responses need to take
into account the external pressures confronting schools.
• The tension between personal and professional responses to public demands for
performance and accountability is a feature of professional life for teachers.
QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES

1. Why is there so much interest on the part of the community in the outcomes of
schooling? Is it reasonable?
2. Why are assessment and reporting of such interest in relation to the new economy?
Were they any less important to the old economy?
3. What are the equity issues related to assessment and reporting?
4. Are assessment and reporting reliable accountability mechanisms?
5. How can you reconcile your own personal views of assessment and reporting with the
views in the external environment?
REFERENCES
Australian Labor Party (2007), ‘The Australian Economy Needs an Education Revolution’,
New Directions paper on the critical link between long-term prosperity, productivity
growth and human capital investment, <www.wa.alp.org.au/download/now/education_
revolution.pdf>, accessed 3 January 2011.
Berends, M. and Koretz, D. (1996), ‘Reporting Minority Students’ Test Scores: How
Can the NAEP Account for Different Social Contexts?’, Eric Document (ED)
404366.
Black, H. and Broadfoot, P. (1982), Keeping Track of Teaching, Routledge & Kegan Paul,
London.
Blackmore, J. (1988), Assessment and Accountability, Deakin University Press, Geelong.
Bowles, S. and Gintis, H. (1976), Schooling in Capitalist America, Routledge & Kegan Paul,
London.
Brady, L. and Kennedy, K. (2010), Curriculum Construction, 4th edn, Prentice Hall,
Sydney.
Broadfoot, P. (1979), Assessment, Schools and Society, Methuen, London.
Broadfoot, P. (1981), ‘Towards a Sociology of Assessment’, in L. Barton and S. Walker (eds),
Schools, Teachers and Teaching, Falmer, London, pp. 197–217.
Bruner, J. (1996), The Culture of Education, Harvard University Press, Cambridge.
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new cares that the dear baby brought with him, and owing to my
mother's ill-health. Oh, Thorley! I have so prayed that I might be kept
from doubting my mother, and I have sat down many a time to call
her loving words and ways to remembrance, until I have been able to
say to myself, 'No, it is impossible. My mother could never cease to
love me.' Grandmother could have ended all this with a word, yet
she saw me suffer and would not say it."
"She is very old, dear Miss Meg. She has had her own way always,
and gone just in one rut through such a long life. I do believe she
thinks she has a right to do these things. If they troubled her
conscience, she would never rest, and she does sleep as sound as a
healthy baby. She is a wonderful old lady."
"She cannot think that deceit is right. I have asked her so often, and
she has declared that she did not know where my mother was."
"And perhaps she told the truth. It would be just like your
grandmother to keep all those letters unopened, or to burn them
without reading a word, so that she could say truly that she did not
know."
"She will have to give an answer about them now," said Margaretta
firmly.
"Dear Miss Meg, do consider her age. You know about your mamma
now, and where will be the use of upsetting the old lady by saying
anything? Beside, she is getting fond of you, and talks quite proudly
when your back is turned about your pretty singing. Try and keep in
with her, dear Miss Meg. It may mean a great deal to you some day."
But Meg was not to be moved from her purpose. "I will wait until
grandmother has breakfasted, and then I will see her. Not all the
wealth in the world would tempt me to be silent now."
"Think about it, dear, whilst you get your breakfast, or wait till to-
morrow. It is a good thing to sleep on a matter when you are inclined
to be angry."
"As to breakfast, I feel as though I could never take another mouthful
in this house," replied Margaretta. "I cannot wait to sleep over the
matter. I will spend my time in praying that I may not speak angrily,
or forget the respect I owe to one who is my relative, and so old. I
hope God will help me to be patient, but speak I must."
Margaretta accordingly entered Lady Longridge's room, as Thorley

left it with the breakfast-tray.
The old lady greeted her more kindly than usual. She was in high
good humour at receiving extra interest on an investment, but did not
mention this to her granddaughter.
"Grandmother," said the girl, "I wish to speak to you about my

mother. I have had a letter from her. It came into my hands in an
unusual manner—you must not ask me how, for I cannot tell any
more than this, that the post-bag was not meddled with, and that no
one has disobeyed you in any way."
"There has been trickery!" cried Lady Longridge. "Tell me this instant.
Give me the letter. You have no right to receive one unknown to me,
your lawful guardian."
"I would not; I never have done from anyone else; but this is
different, being from my mother."
"It is not. She was to see you once in six months, and seeing that
your father had so willed it, she would not try to alter the conditions,
though they pinched her, and I was glad of it. She has not come near
you; there was nothing about letter-writing in Philip's will. I had the
right to keep the letters!" cried the old lady, triumphantly.
"My mother could not come. She had been ill, but she wrote and
wrote, and I waited, my heart aching with dread, as you know; but all
in vain. Oh, grandmother, you knew, and you did not tell me! Even
now you are glad to think of our suffering."
"No. Not yours. It was hers I spoke about," interrupted Lady
Longridge.
"Well, hers, then. Did you never think what my mother must feel
when not a word of answer reached her? And you are getting so old
—forgive me for saying it; and surely if there has been ill-will
between you and mother, it is time to forgive one another, and be
friends."
"Friends with Florence! Never! And I have told the truth. I never
opened one of her letters, so that I might say that I knew nothing,
and tell no falsehood. The letters are there to prove it."
"Let me have them, grandmother. Do give them to me!" pleaded the

girl.
"Take them, if you like, but take them somewhere else, and do not let
me see your face again. I had meant to do something for you, but
now you shall not have a penny of mine. I will burn my white will to-
day, and send for Melville about the blue one."
"The letters, grandmother, please, the letters!"
"You shall have them. They will pay you well for what this affair will
lose you. Take this key. In that little drawer are the letters unopened.
Mind, you choose between those and more than you know of."
Without hesitation Margaretta took the key, emptied the little drawer
of its contents, and then returned it to Lady Longridge, who said,
"Get out of my sight, and do not trouble me again!"
"Good-bye, grandmother. I am sorry you are angry, but I could not

help speaking. I forgive you. You have been hard sometimes, but I
shall try to forget the pain you have caused me about my dear
mother. I am glad I can forgive, or I should not dare to ask that my
trespasses might be forgiven. Thank you for having me taught by
dear Mrs. Moffat."
"Go!" screamed the old lady. "Go, and do not preach to me. I never
wish to see you again."
The girl turned a look of the deepest pity on that old face, distorted
with anger, and closing the door behind her went to her own room.
CHAPTER VII.
WHICH SHALL IT BE? BLUE OR WHITE?
ONE thought above all others was in Margaretta's mind. She would
leave Northbrook Hall at once and for ever. But where should she
go?
She bethought herself of that old promise, and without waiting even
to change her simple wrapper for a walking dress, she gathered up
her precious letters, threw a soft woollen shawl round her, put on her
hat, and went rapidly towards the little dwelling tenanted by Nelly
Corry and her mother. As she passed through the ill-kept
conservatory she plucked a rose from a bush that had been a
favourite of her mother's, and which she had tended with loving
hands.
She had tasted nothing since early on the preceding evening, and
when she reached the cottage she was faint with want of food and
excitement, for it was getting towards noon.
Nelly was in the midst of her dressmaking, but at the sight of

Margaretta, she deposited her work on the seat she was occupying,
drew forward an old wicker chair, the most comfortable one in the
place, and begged her visitor to sit down. Then she removed her hat
with gentle hands, and, quite alarmed at Margaretta's woe-begone
appearance, asked what was the matter and what she could do for
her.
The girl could not answer, but to Nelly's dismay she burst into a
passion of hysterical weeping.
Nelly strove to soothe her with loving words, and wished that her
mother would come, for Mrs. Corry being a little better than usual
had gone to do the shopping of the tiny household.
Soothed and calmed at last, Margaretta told her tale to her humble
friend, and concluded by saying, "I have come to you, Nelly. I have
kept my promise. I have scarcely any money, for Mrs. Moffat has my
last sovereign, and I forgot to mention it before she left."
"Don't name money, dear Miss Meg. I am not without a trifle, and
there is Thorley with plenty, who would do anything for you. I will get
you a cup of tea and something with it. Then you will be better, for
you are faint for want of it."
Nelly busied herself in preparing the tea, and poor Meg thankfully
partook of it, and then read, one by one, all the letters written by that
dear hand, and now first opened by her own. From them she
gathered all the details of her mother's illness and journeyings to and
fro, of the tender cares by which she was surrounded; and she read,
with tear-moistened eyes, how that dear parent was ever looking
forward to meeting her again, and to the time when no one would be
able to separate them from each other. In more than one letter
money was enclosed, so that Margaretta found she would need no
help of this kind.
As she closed the last precious letter she felt more tenderly towards
her grandmother. "At least," thought she, "I have been able to read
my dear mother's words of love. She might have read them herself
and then burned them."
Old Lady Longridge was truly a strange mixture. Too vindictive to

give up her daughter-in-law's letters, yet impelled by a certain sense
of honour to refrain from reading words only meant for the eyes of
her granddaughter, and determined that in saying she knew nothing
of Mrs. Norland's movements, the statement should be true.
Thorley had a trying time with her old mistress that day. She found
out that Margaretta had left the Hall, but that she had carried nothing
away with her, so rightly judged that she had taken refuge at Nelly
Corry's. She had no chance of following her thither, for Lady
Longridge kept her constantly in sight, and, contrary to custom,
remained in her own room all the day.
"I am not well enough to go down," she said. "That girl has upset me
with her talk about forgiving. As if I, an old woman of eighty-three,
now would ask her pardon. And to talk of Florence! I never could
bear the woman! Daughters-in-law and daughters are all alike—at
any rate mine were. They cared for themselves, and left me to shift
for myself. I am getting old. The girl told the truth there, and
somebody must have the money. If I could make a new will—but
Melville is away, and I will trust nobody else. He is weak; he wanted
me to leave money to my daughters, who had their share long since;
but he is true, and can keep his own counsel and my secrets. I wish
—"
But the voice became tremulous and quavering, and for a time Lady
Longridge ceased to think aloud, and slept in her easy-chair by the
fire, while Thorley watched in silence, afraid to move, lest she should
arouse her mistress.
Lady Longridge awoke refreshed, but asked no questions about

Margaretta. She, however, later in the day gave Thorley the key of a
safe which occupied a corner of her bedroom and stood confessed
as such, without an attempt at concealment.
"Get out two papers for me," she said. "They are in large envelopes
—one blue, the other white, and both are marked alike, 'The last Will
and Testament of Dame Sophia Janet Longridge.'"
Thorley obeyed, and placed them by her side.
"Now undress me. I am tired, and will go to bed," said her mistress;
and as soon as her head touched the pillow she said, "Give me my
two last wills."
Clutching them tightly in her hand, Lady Longridge again began to

murmur to herself—
"The girl is a fine girl. She kept her temper better than I could have
done. Perhaps I have been hard; but it was Florence I disliked. She
would have turned me out of Northbrook, but she had to leave me
here at last. I always said I would live and die here, and I shall. I am
just a little glad the girl forgave me." Another pause. "I seem to see
differently to-day. I could almost see Florence if she came now.
Thorley, where is my granddaughter? Call her."
But Thorley knew she should call in vain, so she said she would
send and seek Miss Longridge, who was out somewhere.
"I wonder will she come in time?"
The words dropped more slowly from Lady Longridge's lips, and
there was a look in her face that startled Thorley. But once again she
spoke with comparative firmness, and the maid thought that her
mistress was battling against the drowsiness which was stealing
over her, and had made her so slow of utterance.
"I think Thorley shall settle it," she said. "I can take her opinion first
and act on it. Then if I like I can burn the other 'last will,' and let them
fight over the old woman's money."
Addressing her maid, she continued, "Here are two wills. This blue
one leaves much to you, little to Margaretta. The white, much to her,
little to you. Both cannot stand; which shall I burn?"
"Dear madam, burn the blue one!" cried the unselfish creature, true
to her love for dear Miss Meg. "Let the money go to your own flesh
and blood. I do not want it; I have saved what will serve my time, and
I shall be happy in seeing Miss Margaretta have it when you can
enjoy it no longer."
"Here, then, burn the blue one," and Lady Longridge relinquished her
hold of it. Thorley first tore it across, and then pushing it into the
midst of the fire saw it consumed to the last morsel.
"I almost wish you had burned the other," said her mistress. "You are
so unselfish you deserve the money; not that it has made me happy.
Margaretta is a long time in coming, and I must go to sleep. Say
'good-night' for me. I think you have made me feel as if I wanted to
forgive everybody. After all, blood is thicker than water."
Thorley heard unwonted words from the aged lips—"Forgive us our

trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us." Then a
murmur only, then sleep.
The message sent by Thorley was the means of bringing Margaretta
back to the Hall, though she had never intended to return thither. But
a talk with her humble little friend Nelly had so softened the heart,
that when summoned she was ready to go with the messenger. On
tiptoe she entered Lady Longridge's room and crept to the bedside,
accompanied by Thorley, who bent over her mistress to listen.
There was no sound of breathing, no sign of life. Those murmured

words had been her last, and in her hand, though the grasp on it had
relaxed, lay the white will, truly the last will and testament of Dame
Sophia Janet Longridge, the contents of which made Margaretta her
heiress and owner of wealth far beyond what those who thought they
knew had counted on her leaving behind.
The succession of shocks was too great for the girl to bear, and for
the first time in her life she fainted by the side of the bed whereon lay
all that remained of her whose rule had been so long and so
despotic.
It was a great and unforeseen blessing that Mrs. Moffat returned that
night sooner than she intended, and that on her way to Clough
Cottage she stopped to leave a message for Nelly Corry. From her
she heard of Margaretta's flight from the Hall and the summons
back, and without hesitating, she ordered her coachman to drive
straight to Northbrook, where her presence gave the greatest
possible comfort.
Clasped in her kind arms, Margaretta sobbed out her story, and
received the best consolation she could have, until, only a couple of
days later, she found herself in those of her mother. Mr. and Mrs.
Norland had taken a shorter route home than they at first planned, to
avoid a district in which there had been cases of cholera; and on
reaching England saw the announcement of Lady Longridge's death
in the "Times," so hastened to Northbrook.
No more separations to look forward to. Mother and daughter were

united, with no fear of being snatched from each other. Lady
Longridge would have wondered, if with mortal eyes she could have
seen honest tears falling from those of her daughter-in-law. But the
account of those last words, the fact that the old lady had left her
wealth to Margaretta, as if to make amends for past harshness, the
memory of the sick-bed from which, by God's goodness, she had
been raised to renewed health, and perhaps the knowledge that she
herself might have been more forbearing, all combined to produce
softened feelings in her mind. She was very glad of those words
which Thorley repeated in a voice broken by sobs, "You have made
me feel as if I wanted to forgive everybody," and the divinely-taught
prayer which followed, and which Mrs. Hugh Norland herself said
that night as she had never said it before.
No one knew what Thorley had done, or by what a noble act of self-
sacrifice she had secured the inheritance for her dear Miss Meg.
They are not parted, for though Thorley at first thought she would
have a little home of her own, the tears of her darling induced her to
forego her resolution. The same roof covers them, and she who
might have inherited Lady Longridge's wealth waits upon the
heiress, and is well contented with the legacy which came to her, or
indeed would have been content without it.
Margaretta is doubly happy in her present home, for her stepfather is

good and wise, and regards her as a sacred charge from his old
friend, because she is Sir Philip Longridge's daughter. The girl finds
endless pleasure in the little boy who calls her "Sister Meg," and
tyrannises over her in baby fashion.
Mrs. Moffat has left Clough Cottage, and resides near the Norlands,
so Margaretta, long deprived of her mother's presence, now declares
she has two mammas.
Little Nelly Corry's deft fingers are often employed on dear Miss
Meg's gowns still, for she, too, has left the neighbourhood of
Northbrook Hall, and has a better and prettier home with her mother,
rent free, on Mr. Norland's estate.
So we will leave Margaretta, loved and cared for, amid surroundings
suitable to her present fortunes, and finding happiness in giving it to
others. A holiday story hers is, without a holiday or a hero. But she is
young yet, and abundantly contented. Her hero will come in time,
and if I happen to know him, I will tell you when a love story begins
with dear Miss Meg for its heroine.
A TALE OF A PENNY
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTORY.
"Do be quiet, Jack. I wonder who can read, write, or think, with any
hope of satisfactory results, whilst you are turning everything topsy-
turvy and rummaging round in such a fashion. What restless plagues
lads are, to be sure!"
"And all because a penny is lost, stolen, strayed, or otherwise

mislaid. I am sure it is not worth all that fuss," said sister number two,
while the young gentleman addressed, no ways affected, continued
his search for the missing coin.
There were just the three of them in a cosy room, one of those
universally useful apartments which are not too grand for working,
studying, or playing in, as the case may be, but in which mothers
and their young folk love to congregate. Florence, mostly called
Flossie, on account of her lovely hair, which was just one mass of
silken locks, was the eldest, and a girl of sixteen. She was generally
considered "a little bit blue," being a hard worker at her books, and
great in various branches of study unknown to girls when our
mothers were at school.
One of the teachers had been heard to call Flossie the prop of her
class; whereupon Master Jack, who was very fond of having a sly
poke at girls in general, and his sisters in particular, said he had
never known such an appropriate name for anybody.
"Floss is not only a prop but a perfect clothes-prop in every position,"

he said, in allusion to his sister's height, slimness, and length of limb.
At this moment Flossie was studying for an "exam." And, though

very fond of her young brother, she did not like to be interrupted by
Jack's "rampage" for his lost penny.
Madge, the second girl, though nearly two years younger, was a
born housewife; full of motherly instincts, and doting on little children.
She was still a child, despite those graver employments and
abstruse studies which are supposed to promote the higher
education of women in these enlightened days. She had been a doll-
worshipper always, and now, at more than fourteen years of age,
was the happy possessor of an immense family in wax, wood, cloth,
and porcelain. Amongst these she was as busy as was Flossie at
her books—furbishing up the whole lot, washing faces, repairing
garments, tidying dishevelled locks, and otherwise making the
multitude of dolls fit to be seen. Madge had brought down a doll's
house, relegated a year before to the garret, and was setting it in
order for the amusement of some very small cousins who were
expected on the following day.
At first Jack had been helping Madge, but the loss of that precious
penny—and a new one, too—had diverted his attention, and in the
search for it, he had upset chairs, unmade beds, brought down
miniature pictures, to the destruction of those works of art, and
brought down upon himself, in addition, the wrath of his younger
sister and playmate.
It was amusing to see how the ten-year-old lad's nature seemed

compounded of the very opposite characteristics of the girls. At
lesson time, he plodded away beside Flossie, who helped him with
his declensions, gave him almost too-learned lectures on the
beauties of Euclid, and piloted him tenderly across the Pons
Asinorum.
At playtime, he entered into Madge's pursuits, believed in the reality
of doll families and all their joys and sorrows. He even assisted at
their toilettes by dressing the boy juveniles, propriety being duly
considered, though under the roof of a doll's house. Madge was
playfellow, sister, friend, little mother and comforter to Jack from and
before the time he could toddle. Her great grief in those early days
was that he would grow, and often was she heard to say, when
remarking his progress upwards, "Oh, mamma, won't it be a pity
when Jack is grown out of a baby!" He being the youngest of the
family, and consequently the darling of all.
Father and mother both rejoiced in the close union among the
children, which helped, especially in Madge's case, to keep the girls
young—alas! A very difficult matter in these high-pressure days. And
Jack had a good deal of quiet humour for a lad of his age. He
professed to read Madge like a book, and declared that she made
the coming of the little visitors an excuse to have a turn at the dolls,
of which she was as fond as ever; moreover, that she still nursed
them on the quiet, and caressed them with all the old tenderness
when nobody was by, though in company she tried to look as grown-
up as dear old Floss, who was, in many ways, nearly as old as
Methuselah and as wise as Solomon.
An extra crash amongst the small furniture, and a half-penitent

apology from Jack, and then Madge began to scold in earnest.
"I declare, you bad boy, you have undone nearly an afternoon's
work, and done many a pennyworth of damage. I'll bring an action
against you, Jack, and mamma shall be judge. And here's the
porcelain doll that I called after you, and you were pretending to
wash, left at the bottom of the bath. Of course it's drowned, for no
person could be ten minutes face downwards and under water
without being finished off. However, the little ones can play at
burying him to-morrow—that's something."
This was too much even for Flossie's gravity. She and Jack burst into
a fit of laughing at the idea of the drowned doll and funeral in
prospective, in which Madge joined a moment after, despite her
endeavours to look aggrieved at the sad consequences of Jack's
negligence.
In removing the tin bath Madge discovered the new penny

underneath it, and then Jack remembered that he had put it there
himself for safety, because both his pockets were in an unsafe
condition.
"And no wonder, Jack, considering the loads and loads of rubbish

you put in. One of your jackets came from the cleaner's only
yesterday, and mamma says it smells oily yet, and all through your
carrying lumps of putty in it for weeks together."
Jack pulled a long face, and held out his hand for the recovered coin,
which Madge at first refused to deliver up.
"Give me a kiss for it, and say you're sorry for all the fuss and the
mischief you have caused," said she.
Madge held out her rosy lip; Jack drew back, shrugged his
shoulders, and looked as if he were going to perform an act of
penance. He gave the pretty lips a very rapid salute, snatched the
coin from Madge, then pulled a wry face and polished his own mouth
on the cuff of his coat.
"Is it such a terrible dose, Jack?" asked Madge, with just a suspicion
of moisture in the corner of her eye, for she could not bear the young
rebel even to pretend anything unloving towards her.
For answer she received a hug that would have been a credit to a
Greenland bear, and quite a little shower of kisses from the boy, who
added, "You knew it was only for fun, Madge. I would not vex you,
dear." And she did, know it.
At this moment mamma came in.
"My dear children, what an untidy room! What! Up to the eyes in

dolls and dolls' belongings, Madge. I suppose you are preparing for
the small cousins. But I thought by this time the whole establishment
would be in order. Flossie, how have you gone on working amid such
a racket? What has it been about?"
"Jack's new penny. He lost it, and would not be pacified until at
length it was discovered—but not without enough fuss and turmoil to
make the room in this state—in the very place where he had himself
put it. I offered him another, two others, but nothing save the
particular penny would do. As if the loss of a penny were of any
consequence."
"It is of consequence," said Jack. "I did not want to lose it. I never
like to lose anything, if taking a little trouble will find it. Besides, I
don't believe in being beaten when I know the thing must be
somewhere about, so I was determined not to give in, until I got my
penny back again."
"Right, Jack," said mamma, "and I am very glad your perseverance

was rewarded by its recovery. Still, you had no occasion to make the
whole room and its contents look as though the place was the scene
of a recent earthquake. Flossie, dear, how have you managed to
move your elbows? You might be besieged. Let me say to you, dear,
also, never undervalue a penny. I once heard a story which told how
the future of two lives hung on a single penny."
Flossie's book was closed, and her pen wiped and put away in a
moment.
"I have just finished my work, mamma, and am longing for a chat
with you by the fireside. Tell us the story about the penny. Do, there's
a darling."
Mamma's cosy chair was drawn forward, and a little fireside circle
formed instanter. But mamma protested that she never could tell a
story in the midst of a litter, so Madge and Jack began to clear away
with great rapidity. The girl, who was naturally methodical, put things
in their places; the boy made bad worse by the unceremonious
fashion in which he huddled the dolls, their clothing and furniture into
the miniature mansion, and closed the door upon them.
In her eagerness to hear her mother's story Madge forgot to find fault
with Jack, and soon the girls were seated at each side of the family
tale-teller, and the lad stretched on the rug at her feet, his upturned,
intelligent face lighted by the blaze of the cheerful fire, gas having
been vetoed by unanimous consent.
CHAPTER II.
TWENTY years ago two girls might have been seen approaching a
London railway-station. They had evidently been on a shopping
expedition, for they were quite laden with numbers of small parcels,
besides which they had one of considerable bulk, though not very
weighty. A glance at their fine, fresh faces and the lovely colour on
their cheeks suggested the idea that they were country girls on a
visit to the metropolis. Indeed, few persons could have met these
girls without giving them a second glance. One, the elder by several
years, was unusually tall; but her carriage was equally remarkable
for grace and dignity, and her features for almost faultless regularity.
No wonder that she attracted some attention amongst the many
passers-by.
The younger, a girl of eighteen, was also above the middle height,
and although not a beauty like her sister, her face just possessed the
charm which was lacking in the other. It beamed with intelligence,
and seemed to be the reflection of an active mind, a cheerful temper,
and a warm, loving heart.
Even as they passed along, the unselfish character of the younger
was made manifest. She insisted on carrying the larger share of the
parcels, notably the largest of all, which was evidently a source of
considerable annoyance to her beautiful companion, who plainly
deemed these packages infra dig. Though surrounded by strangers,
she glanced round from time to time, to see if, by any chance, some
acquaintance were noticing her, and carried such parcels as she
retained by their loops of string and on the tips of her fingers, as if
under constant protest.
As they were nearing the station the elder girl said, "I am so glad we
are getting near the end of our tramp. You, Lizzie, scarcely seem to
care how many bundles you have about you, if you can only carry
them; but I hate to go along laden just like a pack-horse, and on a
warm day, too. This hot weather makes me look like a
washerwoman."
"It would take a great deal to make you look like a washerwoman,
Edith," replied Lizzie, with a merry laugh. "I never saw you look
better than you do at this moment. I get as red as a peony all over
my face, and you are only rose-coloured, and in the proper places.
Do touch my face with your handkerchief; for mine is deep down in
one of my many pockets, each of which is crammed with odds and
ends of purchases."
Mollified by this tribute to her personal appearance, Edith did as she

was requested, and the girls, finding they had a quarter of an hour to
spare, seated themselves on a shady seat at one side of the
platform, on which Lizzie also placed her larger parcels; seeming
thankful for the rest.
They were not going home together after all. They were guests in the
same house; but they had other friends in the neighbourhood
besides those with whom they were staying. Edith, especially, had
many acquaintances, amongst whom she had often visited when in
London on former occasions, and she was going to spend the
evening with an old schoolfellow recently married.
Lizzie, in London for the first time; was a stranger to this married
friend of her sister. She had been invited to accompany Edith; but
had declined, because had she gone she must have disappointed
some quite little children, to whom she considered herself engaged.
"You might have gone with me, Lizzie," said Edith, in a tone of
annoyance. "Just as though it mattered for you to romp with those
little cousins to-night."
"I had promised the children before Mrs. Martin's invitation came,
and these little people feel a disappointment far more than elder
ones do. Besides, I know your friend does not really want me, and
Sam and Nellie do. She only asked me out of civility to you, and you
will enjoy your confab a great deal better by yourselves. Even if Mrs.
Martin did want me, a promise is a promise, and I must keep my
word."
A slight look of contempt crossed Edith's fair face as Lizzie

announced her intention of keeping her appointment with the little
people, but she felt that, after all, her frank young sister might be
rather in the way than otherwise, on the principle that two are
company, three none. She was rather reckoning on an hour's tête-à-
tête with Mrs. Martin, who had been her chosen school friend, and
as whose bridesmaid she had officiated a few months before. Mr.
Martin and his brother would be in to dinner at six, and then there
would be two couples for chatting, and perhaps a stroll together,
before she should have to return to her temporary home, and rejoin
Lizzie there.
Edith did not say aloud what was passing through her mind. Her
reply was, "Of course you cannot go with me now, as you have not
dressed for the purpose, and I was certain you would go back to
those children in any case. But you will have to take every one of the
parcels and my umbrella. It will not matter, as you take the train
directly, and you can have a cab from the station."
"Oh no, I can manage very well. But, Edith, you forget. I have no
money left. You must give me some."
"And I have very little; only five and sixpence. I cannot go to Mrs.
Martin's without anything in my pocket. If you had not persisted in
buying that Shetland shawl to-day we should have had plenty and to
spare, and if you had let the shop people send it, we need not have
gone about laden like two excursionists."
"We are excursionists," laughed Lizzie. "Haven't we got special

tickets for this very trip? As to the shawl, it was so exactly what
mamma has been trying to obtain, that I felt we ought not to risk
losing it. I care nothing about carrying it, for though it makes rather a
large parcel, it is very light, and I shall have the pleasure of
forwarding it to mamma at once. Besides, Edith, you bought several
little things for yourself after I had spoken for the shawl."
Lizzie felt just a little bit hurt at her sister's reproof, for Edith's
purchases, which had nearly drained her purse, were all for her own
personal adornment, and helped very considerably to increase the
load which she declined to share. The shawl would add greatly to the
comfort of their rather delicate mother, who needed one which would
combine warmth with extreme lightness, and who had begged the
girls to send one from London with as little delay as possible.
Edith insisted that in such roasting hot weather, the shawl could not
be of any consequence. Lizzie's great desire was to execute her
mother's commission, and to keep her promise.
Again the girl reminded her elder sister of her own moneyless
condition. "However the cash has gone, Edith, it is gone, and I
suppose the railway people will not give me a ticket for nothing. You
must spare me something in the shape of a coin. I will do with as
little as possible. I can pay the cabman from my money at home."
"The fare is only fourpence," said Edith, taking out her purse and
abstracting the only small coin in it. "I suppose this sixpence will do.
By the bye, it is my train that goes at the quarter; yours is at the half-
hour, so you will have to wait by yourself."

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(Original PDF) Assessment and

Reporting Celebrating Student

This new edition reflects on current and enduring debates,

9781442546813_CVR.indd 1 10/1/15 9:52 AM

Copyright © Pearson Australia 2012

Reproduction and communication for educational purposes

Reproduction and communication for other purposes

Acquisitions Editor: Julie Tylman

National Library of Australia

Author: Brady, Laurie, 1947-

Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd ABN 40 004 245 943

Laurie dedicates this work to Julia.

Kerry dedicates this work to Zoe, Jamie, Oliver and Henry

Letter grades 107

C HAP TE R E IGHT 121

C HAP TE R NINE 132

Assessment and Reporting: Celebrating Student Achievement provides a timely analysis of

Denise Dillon-Smith, University of Notre Dame

Assessment is the process that monitors students’

Norm-referenced assessment Rank orders the performance of individual students.

Table 1.1 Continued

Authentic assessment Refers to the quality of assessment tasks and requires

The remaining sections will consider assessment in relation to:

THE OUTCOMES OF SCHOOLING

Table 1.2 Stakeholder interests in the outcomes of schooling

Students Life chances that are personally fulfilling and rewarding.

EQUITY AND SOCIAL CONTEXTS

PERSONAL FULFILMENT AND SATISFACTION

QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES

Margaretta accordingly entered Lady Longridge's room, as Thorley

"Grandmother," said the girl, "I wish to speak to you about my

"Let me have them, grandmother. Do give them to me!" pleaded the

"The letters, grandmother, please, the letters!"

"Good-bye, grandmother. I am sorry you are angry, but I could not

Nelly was in the midst of her dressmaking, but at the sight of

Old Lady Longridge was truly a strange mixture. Too vindictive to

Lady Longridge awoke refreshed, but asked no questions about

Thorley obeyed, and placed them by her side.

Clutching them tightly in her hand, Lady Longridge again began to

"I wonder will she come in time?"

Thorley heard unwonted words from the aged lips—"Forgive us our

There was no sound of breathing, no sign of life. Those murmured

No more separations to look forward to. Mother and daughter were

Margaretta is doubly happy in her present home, for her stepfather is

"And all because a penny is lost, stolen, strayed, or otherwise

"Floss is not only a prop but a perfect clothes-prop in every position,"

At this moment Flossie was studying for an "exam." And, though

It was amusing to see how the ten-year-old lad's nature seemed

An extra crash amongst the small furniture, and a half-penitent

In removing the tin bath Madge discovered the new penny

"And no wonder, Jack, considering the loads and loads of rubbish

At this moment mamma came in.

"My dear children, what an untidy room! What! Up to the eyes in

"Right, Jack," said mamma, "and I am very glad your perseverance

Mollified by this tribute to her personal appearance, Edith did as she

A slight look of contempt crossed Edith's fair face as Lizzie

"We are excursionists," laughed Lizzie. "Haven't we got special

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