The Centre’s overall aim is to investigate the impact of educational assessment. Connections between policy, assessment theory and practice need to be elucidated, researched and critiqued for assessment to play a better role in improving education.

The Centre’s main research priorities are to:

• Conduct research into the role of assessment in developing, implementing and monitoring system-level change.
• Develop models of educational assessment to increase understanding of learning processes, resource use and outcomes in education systems.
• Undertake systematic analyses of assessment, public policy and the interaction between them in various sectors of education and subject domains. For example, the use of international test data within and across education systems.
• Investigate how assessment is perceived and used by stakeholders (learners, parents, institutions, employers, policy-makers) within education systems.
• Critically examine notions of validity, reliability and standards in relation to different modes of assessment and to different purposes.
• Evaluate the potential for the use and application of psychometrics to enhance the validity and reliability of educational assessment.
• Explore the opportunities for, and the impacts of, new assessment technologies in test design, test distribution, test administration and results delivery.