This is the first title in this new series, which is aimed principally at secondary PGCE and BAEd students and school and HEI-based tutors. Each book provides a digest of the central issues around a particular topic or issues, grounded in or supported by examples of good practice, with suggestions for further reading, study and investigation. The books are not intended as how to books, but rather as books which will help students and teachers to explore and understand critical theoretical issues in ways that are challenging, that invite critical reappraisals of taken-for-granted practices and perceptions, and that provide appropriate links between theory and practice. Issues related to equal opportunities and special needs are included in each separate volume. There are boxes of questions, think abouts , further reading, and bulleted summary lists for the reader. This book is written specifically for teachers-in-training which will clarify the big picture of monitoring and assessment and makes the crucial distinctions in this large field. There has been a huge effort over the last decade to bolster external, summative assessment (ie SATs) which has distorted teacher’s perceptions of the potential of good formative assessment to raise achievement. The book addresses the principles and practice of educational assessment in a manner that is relevant and accessible to the student teacher. It takes on the whole canvass from marking to public examinations and is guided by the authors’ concerns to make the big picture meaningful and coherent for the new teacher. The book helps the reader make vital distinctions and introduces them to inescapable tensions in the field - not least between formative and summative assessment, a fundamental distinction still not largely understood by the teaching force. The authors have written widely on assessment matter, both within their respective subject areas and generically.