Project overview
The Assessment Reform Group was a voluntary group of researchers brought together as the Policy Task Group on Assessment by the British Educational Research Association (BERA) in 1989. In 1996, when BERA ceased to support policy task groups, the Group adopted the name ARG and its meetings were funded by the Nuffield Foundation. The ARG was dissolved in 2010.
The aim of the Assessment Reform Group (ARG) was to ensure that assessment policy and practice at all levels takes account of relevant research evidence. In pursuit of this aim the main targets for the Group’s activity were policy-makers in government and its agencies. It also worked closely with teachers, teacher organisations and local education authority staff to advance understanding of the roles, purposes and impacts of assessment.
The activities of the Group included study of the implications of assessment policy and practice, as well as reviewing research and disseminating findings through conferences, seminars and publications.
Inside the Black Box
In 1996, funding from the Foundation enabled the ARG to commission Paul Black and Dylan Wiliam to undertake a literature review on the use of assessment to help with learning. They found decisive evidence that ‘formative assessment’ could improve learning, and published a booklet for practitioners called Inside the Black Box, the production of which was funded by the School of Education at King’s College London.
Additional funding from the Foundation enabled the ARG to publish ‘Assessment for Learning: Beyond the Black Box’, which is available to download as a PDF from the publications section on this page.
After the publication of this review, the Foundation funded a programme of work with teachers that led to the identification by Black, Harrison, Lee, Marshall and Wiliam of advice for improving classroom assessment. This work was independent of the ARG and was published in 2002 as Working inside the Black Box.
Assessment systems for the future
In 2003, the Foundation awarded the ARG a grant to explore the role that assessment by teachers could take for summative purposes. More information is available on the project page.
Analysis and review of Innovations in Assessment (ARIA)
The Foundation also funded the ARG’s Analysis and Review of Innovations in Assessment (ARIA) project, which was designed to help develop understanding of assessment involving teachers. More information is available on the project page.
