Teachers' shifting assessment practices in the context of educational reform in mathematics

This paper presents a study of primary and secondary mathematics teachers' changing assessment practices in the context of policy, stakeholder, and pe rsonal presses for change. Using survey and interviews, we collected teache rs' reports of their uses of three forms of assessment, one linked to tradi tional practice (exercises), and two linked to reforms in mathematics educa tion (open-ended problems and rubrics). Findings revealed several trajector ies of change in the interplay between assessment forms and the functions t hat they serve. Teachers may implement new assessment forms in ways that se rve 'old' functions; teachers may re-purpose 'old' assessment forms in ways that reveal students' mathematical thinking. Our developmental framework p rovides a way to understand the dynamics of teacher development in relation to ongoing educational reforms. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.