The Arts in Schools - Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation

used — are appropriate to the work being done and that theyhelp to develop and improve educational provision ratherthan restrict and distort it. Some demands for accountabilitycan damage the educational interests they seek toserve.129 Two We dispute two arguments. First, the best way to raise thefalse level of basic skills in literacy and numeracy is to narrow thearguments curriculum so that these subjects become the predominantarea of attention. Second, the most reliable guide to thequality of education can be found in public examinationresults. A corollary of this is that 'standards' are best improvedby increasing the pressures of public examinations. There iscertainly a need to comb out some of the tangles in thecurriculum, but the real issue is how to improve the overallquality and general balance of education. This is the legitimateprovince of accountability. What forms of assessment andevaluation are needed for this? The functions of assessmentand evaluation are sometimes seen as synonymous, but theyare different and need to be considered separately. We startwith assessment.130 Assess- The principal function of assessment in schools is to providement information about pupils' abilities and levels of attainment.This fulfils an important role in keeping parents, staff andpupils alert to current levels of work. Assessment may takemany forms. Informally, teachers are assessing pupils all thetime, as indeed the pupils are assessing teachers — throughstyles of speech, attitudes to others and to work done.Assessments may also be formal. This is often associated withliteral or numerical grades, percentages and rank positions.These are not essential to assessment. In principle, theform and method of assessment should vary with the activityand the type of information sought. Assessments of pupilsare not, however, nor can they be, statements of absoluteability. They are statements about achievements within theframework of educational opportunities that have actuallybeen provided. In some degree every assessment of a pupil isalso an assessment of the teachers and of the school.131 Evalu- Because of this, schools need constantly to review the qualityation of provision and their methods of work. This, broadly, isthe function of educational evaluation. It is a more generalprocess than assessment in that it looks beyond the pupilsto the style, the materials and the circumstances of teachingand learning. If teachers need to assess pupils they also needto evaluate their own practice. Although they have differentpurposes, assessment and evaluation are obviously linked.82