This volume is part of a series of monographs from Australia devoted to outlining an alternative approach, based on neo-Marxist concepts, to educational administration. The opening discussion is a critique of conventional student evaluation practices aimed at tracing the social influences that are brought to bear on students, teachers, schools, families, and knowledge itself. The first section argues that educational institutions use a variety of concepts of "ability" and "educability" that are adopted more for their political import or their administrative convenience than for their closeness to scientifically established fact. Remaining sections focus on the following topics: pre- and post-assessment, competitive and noncompetitive assessment, the movement against grading, and the four styles of assessment: graded (norm-referenced), descriptive (individual-referenced), mastery (criterion-referenced), and work-based (goal-referenced). The second part of the paper moves from student assessment per se to evaluation of the social values underpinning each style and the contribution of each to maintaining intellectual standards, classroom management, student socialization, and pedagogy. The conclusion calls for a shift of emphasis from assessment of students to evaluation of courses. Five readings by separate authors follow: (1) "Educational versus Managerial Evaluation in Schools," by Richard J. Bates; (2) "Education in Theory, Schooling in Practice: The Experience of the Last Hundred Years," by Brian Simon; (3) "Assessment: A Workable Democratic Method," by Bill Hannan; (4) "Assessment in Practice: Competitive or Non-Competitive?" by Graeme Withers and Greg Cornish; and "Year 12," by the Victorian Secondary Teachers Association. An annotated bibliography is included. (TE)