The Assessment Reform Group
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 the Foundation funded Paul Black and Dylan Wiliam, part of the ARG, 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.
Additional funding from the Foundation enabled the ARG to publish a further booklet, 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, a programme of work with teachers led to the identification by Black, Harrison, Lee, Marshall and Wiliam of advice for improving classroom assessment. This 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.
Members of the ARG between 1989 and 2010 were:
Professor Jo-Anne Baird
Professor Paul Black
Professor Patricia Broadfoot
Professor Richard Daugherty
Professor Bryan Dockrell
Professor Kathryn Ecclestone
Professor John Gardner
Professor Caroline Gipps
Professor Wynne Harlen
Professor Louise Hayward
Professor Mary James
Dr Paul Newton
Professor Desmond Nuttall
Professor Judy Sebba
Professor Gordon Stobart
Professor Dylan Wiliam
Black Box series
Inside the Black Box was published in amended form in a US journal as: Black P and Wiliam D (1998) 'Inside the Black Box: Raising standards through classroom assessment', PhiDelta Kappan 80 (2.139-148 October 1998). Reprinted in 2010 as ‘Kappan Classic’ in PhiDeltaKappan 92(1) 81-90.
- Primary science assessment
- Strengthening teachers' summative assessments
- Assessment Systems for the Future
- Team-Based Learning for Assessing Parental Capacity for Change
- Assessing and monitoring primary school children in South Africa
- Strategies for preparing pupils for Key Stage 2 maths tests
- Mathematics in A level assessments