Teachers often understand the importance of assessment for educational improvement, but lack the skills and knowledge to create or select quality assessments, to administer and score them appropriately, to interpret scores so as to plan and report appropriately. While many other texts provide useful insights into the policy and curriculum related issues of assessment, few provide detailed instruction in the technical skills of item construction, test scoring, and report writing. Contemporary Educational Assessment: Practices, Principles and Policies takes up this challenge and through this book, show how the beginning or practicing teacher can do assessment in the classroom environment.

The book is in two parts which can be studied sequentially or in a more integrated fashion. Part One provides practice-based skills and experience of item creation and interpretation of assessments. Part Two deals with theoretical and conceptual principles and policies related to assessment.

Dr Gavin Brown was a secondary- and tertiary-level ESOL and English teacher before going into full-time research. At the New Zealand Council for Educational Research he developed items and tests for the Assessment Resource Bank and the Essential Skills Assessments: Information Skills projects. He was the senior manager for the Assessment Tools for Teaching and Learning (asTTle) software system disseminated to all New Zealand schools by the Ministry of Education. His research interests are into the belief systems of teachers and students about assessment and how those influence outcomes and practices. Currently, he is an Associate Professor in the Department of Curriculum & Instruction at the Hong Kong Institute of Education where he teaches on assessment and research methods.

Dr Ngan Ming Yan was a primary school teacher before going into teacher education in Hong Kong. He has been a Visiting Scholar at Wolfson College, Cambridge University in 2007, National Normal University of Taiwan in 2004, and Visiting Research Fellow at Victoria University in Melbourne, Australia in 2007. His research interests are in the assessment of classroom and policy, teacher change and school culture. Currently, he is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Curriculum & Instruction at the Hong Kong Institute of Education where he teaches on assessment and curriculum.