Richard Riding is Director of the Examination and Assessment Research Unit at the School of Education, University of Birmingham. He has written extensively on educational psychology. Sue Butterfield is Research Fellow at the School of Education, University of Birmingham.

• 1 The development of secondary assessment and Examinations 2 The types, purposes and effects of assessment 3 The administration of GCSE: an outline 4 Profiling and records of achievement 5 Assessment and the curriculum 6 Assessment and recruitment of school-leavers for training and employment 7 Assessment methods and equal opportunities 8 Future trends in assessment