This is a book about assessment, in particular assessment in English. English, as a subject, has had a curious relationship with those who want to see how pupils are doing in it, and it is nearly always one of complaint. Something about the system makes them wonder whether or not we are rewarding our pupils with the marks they deserve and so this is where we will begin. We will look at how English teachers have negotiated the summative assessment of their charges, considering first how they meandered through the strictures of exam board control after the Second World War and then were frogmarched through reforms, after the 1988 Education Reform Act to the present day, sometimes kicking, always screaming. Next we will look at how they have sought to reclaim the assessment agenda, this time not through summative assessment but via the formative kind, assessment for learning or AfL. Finally we will glance at another summative project before alighting on the assessment of English elsewhere in the world. And when all that is done we will conclude.
But the question we must ask first is why English teachers are so quarrelsome when it comes to assessing their subject. The answer that this book gives is that it is because in some shape or form they wish to see the subject assessed as an arts subject and that means concentrating more on the whole of what is written or said than its parts. Pat Creber, in a book entitled Thinking through English, describes the subject as ‘untidy’ (1990). His use of the word ‘untidy’ is interesting, for as far as I can tell he does not use the word critically, rather, I think, he thinks of English as one would a messy but endearing child, full of play but not very good at tidying up afterwards. In the play many exciting, unthought of adventures are embarked upon, many ordinary objects are sequestered for extraordinary use; the imagination is untamed. The problem is the mess that is left afterwards, and depending on one’s view of English, this is either unproblematic, a bit tricky, or a vastly difficult dilemma needing a quick resolution. English, Creber is saying, does not colour between the lines but there are those who think it should.