Leading Innovation and Change in Educational Settings: The Challenges of Assessment Reform

Abstract

Readers will be familiar with the continual product innovation that occurs in business and manufacturing. Innovation here is risky and unpredictable, not all new products will succeed for long. Sony’s obsolete Betamax video recorder which was overtaken by VHS and more recently by digital video recording demonstrates this well. Standing still is not an option and lack of innovation means the product will be superseded at some point unless the product has exceptionally enduring qualities (Dodgson et al., 2005). Maintaining the status quo is similarly not option in education: changes in education policy, demographics, culture and financial uncertainty all push for innovation and change. This book has mentioned many examples of changes in assessment practice that have occurred in the recent past, such as a shift from examinations to coursework and increased use of formative assessment, and it has proposed assessment reform for the future - ipsative assessment. This chapter will review some different models and processes for leading and implementing assessment innovation and reform and highlight some of the challenges that accompany change