Standards-based educational reform and its implications for school-based assessment: lessons from Zimbabwean schools - Francis Chirume

The question of assessment standards has been at the centre of debate at many regional and international conferences on education. The debates are a result of new education initiatives and call for increased accountability. Expectations about what all students should learn - and, by implication, what they should be tested on - have changed in response to social, economic and technological changes and as a result of the standards-based reform movement. This has intensified the demand for schools to develop more effective, integrated methods of assessing student performance. This article discusses perceptions of Zimbabwe secondary school teachers on how standards-based education has impacted on school-based assessment. The research is based on interviews with teachers, and shows that teachers believe that content and performance standards are critical in the implementation of school-based assessment. However, performance and opportunity-to-learn standards were found to be inadequately expressed in official documentaton. The article recommends that teachers receive in-service training in the area of assessment and educational standards so that they can understand and apply the principles of standards in school-based assessment.
From: Southern African Review of Education, Vol. 13 no. 1 (2007)