Teacher assessment at Key Stage One

The focus of this paper is on teacher assessment at Key Stage One in the second year of the statutory implementation of National Assessment in England and Wales. In our analysis of the operation of the assessment system, and the interpretation of results, in schools and LEAs, we have attempted to elicit and describe implicit models of assessment practice used by year‐2 teachers. These models appear to reflect both different beliefs about the nature of teaching and learning and different reactions to the National Assessment innovation. Caroline Gipps, Bet McCallum, Shelley McAlister and Margaret Brown are a team working at present on the evaluation of National Assessment in primary schools. The project directors, Caroline Gipps and Margaret Brown, are specialists internationally recognized in the field of assessment. Bet McCallum, a former headteacher, is course tutor to the Diploma in Education (Primary Schools) at U.L.I.E. and senior researcher to the NAPs project. Shelley McAlister, part‐time research assistant, has experience in industrial and commercial research. She is tutor/counsellor in Social Science at the Open University.