Assessment methods can largely determine what and how students learn, so it is vital that our assessment methods are appropriate to our true educational purposes. This book examines the issues underlying assessment procedures, such as truth, fairness, trust, humanity and social justice and goes on to consider the five key dimensions of assessment: * why assess? * what to assess? * how to assess? * How to interpret? * How to respond? Having guided us through the many conceptual and terminological traps, the book ends constructively with seventeen proposals for making assessment work in the best interests of our students.