News28th February 2017
Daisy Christodoulou, Head of Assessment at Ark, has added to the assessment debate with her new book, Making Good Progress? The future of Assessment for Learning. The book analyses the impact that Assessment for Learning has had in classrooms.
A launch for the book was held by Ark on Monday 28 February. The event was attended by professionals from the education and public sector. Host Russell Hobby, General Secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, asked Daisy some challenging questions about the pressures of accountabilty, and the continuous reform of primary assessment.
On stage, Daisy commented, “Assessment is at the heart of education. We all know that pupils don’t always learn what we teach them – and that’s why assessment matters. It’s all about making sure our teaching is worthwhile.
“Assessment for Learning didn’t transform our schools in the way we think it should have done – this is because it was layered onto a faulty theory about the way in which pupils learn. You can’t teach a skill in an abstract way. There are lots of ways in which we can make assessment better. But we have to be brave.”
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Dylan Williams, Emeritus Professor of Educational Assessment at University College London says of Daisy’s book: “Schools are going to have to re-think their methods of assessing, recording and reporting, from scratch, and this book is an excellent place to start.”
As Head of Assessment at Ark, Daisy works on assessment reform, replacements for national curriculum levels and readiness for new national exams. Previously she was Research and Development Manager at Ark, working closely on curriculum reform in secondary English. Prior to this, Daisy taught secondary English in two London comprehensives. Her first book, Seven Myths about Education, was published in 2014.
Making Good Progress? is available to purchase online at www.oxfordsecondary.co.uk/daisyc