Assessment and Education: Access and Achievement

In these remarks, I address the two broad uses of testing and assessment in education. One is selecting for and facilitating access to education; the second is the assessment of learning outcomes, i.e., the level and nature of competence achieved. I consider these two functions and discuss their present condition, anachronistic dysfunctional uses, and research directions for the future. Overall, I attempt to place research familiar to many in a framework that emphasizes the interaction between assessment, learning, and instruction that I believe is necessary for the future.