In this keynote address, the author shared a case study of an inner‐city girls’ school in Chicago. She discussed the school and community initiatives established to ensure academic, social, and emotional success. With their new model of assessment and academic supports, the school boasts a 100 percent graduation rate.

National and international large-scale literacy assessments play an indelible role in impacting educational policy and curriculum across the globe. In fact, the value attached to these measures persists regardless of questions raised about the influence of the nature of such tests, characteristics and requirements of test items, and the ways in which demographic characteristics such as English learner status, gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic status (SES), and disability impact student literacy performance.

In Trinidad and Tobago, elementary school students transition to secondary schools after writing the Secondary Entrance Examination (SEA), which determines which school they are placed at. Up to 2013, that examination comprised summative assessment in Mathematics, English Language Arts, and Composition. During the period 2013 to 2016, however, a continuous assessment component (CAC) was introduced, requiring amongst other things, that students produce a portfolio of written pieces.

This study investigated the perceptions, preparedness of, and the challenges encountered by teachers of English as they implemented the CSEC English SBA in Jamaican secondary schools for the first time. Data collected through a survey of 124 randomly selected teachers of English and analyzed using descriptive statistics, t-Tests, ANOVA, and crosstabulations showed that teachers had a predominantly negative perception of the CSEC English SBA. This negative perception was strongly and positively associated with the teachers’ being unprepared to implement the English SBA.

This paper forms part of a larger research study which examined the role of discourse in the changes made to the administration of the Grade Four Literacy Test (G4LT) in 2009 in Jamaica. The literacy test was modified from a classroom-based assessment to a high-stakes nationwide examination. While the broader study focused on changes at the policy level, and how the test changes were discussed in the print media, this paper will focus on how the modifications to the G4LT influenced changes at the level of the school.