This article is an extract from a longer research article originally published in the journal "English in Education." It describes a parallel situation in Australia where high-stakes assessment led to stereotyped writing, endless test practice and widespread student disengagement.

This paper presents a method for equating writing assessments using pairwise comparisons which does not depend upon conventional common-person or common-item equating designs. Pairwise comparisons have been successfully applied in the assessment of open-ended tasks in English and other areas such as visual art and philosophy. In this paper,…

Determining the writing skill level of students commencing tertiary education is a key element in predicting their likely study success and in providing appropriate writing development opportunities. Writing tests constructed around written instructions often assume high levels of reading and comprehension skills, which in some instances impose…

Purpose: This paper argues that in a well-organised school with strong leadership and vision coupled with a concerted effort to improve the teaching performance of each teacher, student achievement can be enhanced. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that while macro-effect sizes such as "whole of school" metrics are useful for…