ASSESSMENT POLICY AS PERSUASION AND REGULATION

Policymakers continue to view student assessment as an appealing instr ument of education policy, and they have found a wider variety of uses for it over the past two decades. This article explores the policy us es of assessment, focusing particularly on its persuasive role in enco uraging higher levels of educational performance and on its accountabi lity and regulatory functions. The purpose is to provide a framework t hat will help explain the reasoning of policymakers who continue to in sist that assessments can be used for multiple purposes, even in light of their own prior experience and expert evidence to the contrary.