INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH ON SCHOOL-BASED ASSESSMENT

Abstract

The five articles in this issue provide a dramatic illustration of the wide diversity of conditions under which psychologists concerned with the assessment of children undertake research and provide service. One is amazed that Dr. Saigh found it possible to gather and analyze data in strife-torn Lebanon, and his report provides testimony to the devotion with which he pursued his endeavours under most difficult conditions. In the People's Republic of China, also, political strife and turmoil have hardly provided a fertile soil for assessment research. By contrast, the United States is swarming with school psychologists, sorne providing service in the schools and some who are situated in universities where research and development is encouraged and supported. Though the authors of the articles in this issue tend quite generally to affirm that assessment should be comprehensive, synthesizing information from a range of different sources, it is clear that the central concern of assessment in the educational context for most countries, and especially of assessment research, has been and will continue to be appraisal of the general level of the pupil's cognitive functioning. Assessment research on instruments or procedures can be directed at any one of three levels: (1) development of an instrument or procedure and internal analysis of its properties, (2) studies of the effectiveness of the instrument or procedure as a predictor of significant educational outcomes, or (3) studies of the usefulness of the instrument or procedure in guiding interventions to improve learning. We may consider each of these in turn, first as they apply to psychometric type instruments that yield one or more scores and then as they relate to less structured approaches such as observation and interview procedures.