Professor Mary E. James works part-time for the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge as Associate Director of Research. She is also President of the British Educational Research Association.

"It is undoubtedly an accolade to be among the select few leading international academics chosen for inclusion in this World Library of Educationalists series. It suggests, rightly, that Mary E. James has made a world leading contribution in her chosen field of assessment and evaluation. ... Readers who pick up this volume, whether they have lived through the turbulent years that James describes or who are relatively new to the fray, will recognise the message of this collection concerning what matters in educational research - quality, utility, accessibility and a fundamental desire to improve the business of learning. The collection is a fitting tribute to the contribution of a recent President of the British Educational Research Association. It is a tribute to what it and all educational research should stand for." - Patricia Broadfoot, Graduate School of Education, University of Bristol, UK, in The Curriculum Journal

• Part One: Educational Evaluation for Innovation and Change 1. School Self-Evaluation for the Improvement of Educational Practice: Some theoretical issues 2. School Self-Evaluation: Patterns of emerging practice 3. HOw Shal we Know Success: Alternative waysof developing criteria for judging the effectiveness of educational programmes, with reference to PSHE 4. Evaluation for Policy: Rhetoric and political reality Part 2: Educational Assessment and Learning 5. Negotiation and Dialogue in Student Assessment by Teachers 6. Assessment for Learning 7. Assessment, Learning and the Improvement of Students 8. Systems for Moderation by Teachers to Enhance the Quality of Assessment 9. Measured Lives: The rise of assessment as the engine of change in English schools 10. Assessment in Harmony with our Understanding of Learning Part Three: Educational Research and the Development of Curriculum and Pedagogy 11. Embedding and Spreading Assessment for Learning and Learning How to Learn Ideas and Practices Within and Beyond the Classroom 12. Ten Principles for Effective Pedagogy 13. Lawrence Stenhouse's Process Model of Curriculum Research and Development Revisited