Government's Paper Empire: Historical Perspectives on Measuring Student Achievement in British Columbia Schools, 1872-1999

Few historical studies of government's interest in student achievement exist and, of those that do, most concern themselves with relatively short periods of time, a decade or two in general. This discussion takes a longer view of measurement practices in one jurisdiction, British Columbia. Based on archival records, it examines testing and assessment developments in Canada's westernmost province from the establishment of public education in 1872, to 1999, when narrow test-based approaches to measuring achievement gave way to broader assessment practices based on formative, anecdotal, and portfolio reporting strategies. The study illustrates that government's interest in measuring student achievement - and thereby demonstrating public accountability for educational expenditures - is anything but new and may be traced in an unbroken line of concern that stretches back to the Victorian Era and to the earliest days of public schooling in the province.