The book addresses the following key questions: Why do I need to assess? When and how often do I need to assess? What do I need to assess? How can I assess my students?

The authors guide the reader step-by-step through the process of developing and using classroom-based assessments with clear explanations and definitions of key terms, illustrative examples, and activities for applying the approach in practice.

• "...the book really does offer a new way of looking at classroom assessment... Bachman and Damboeck urge teachers to first ask what beneficial consequences we want to bring about through our assessments, then decide what and how to assess... What stands out is the readability of the book, achieved largely through a conversational style that engages and allows readers to digest difficult technical concepts with relative ease."
  - RELC Journal
• "It has valuable lessons for those in an institution's testing unit [and] also focuses well on major concerns for the general teacher involved in assessment."
  - EL Gazette
• "In spite of the potentially daunting nature of the subject, the authors present things in a straightforward and accessible fashion, making the book a very educational and useful resource... Reading this book was a real eye-opener for me as a teacher. Needless to say, I would definitely recommend it."
  - English Teaching Professional
• "Classroom testing is scrutinised in such a way that teachers following these guidelines will be able to see the use of assessment as something purposeful... an easily accessible compendium which will provide them with useful advice on how to implement meaningful assessment in the classroom."
  - IATEFL Voices

Part I: Introduction
1 A new approach to classroom-based language assessment
2 Using classroom-based language assessments

Part II: A systematic approach to assessment development
3 Overview of our approach to assessment development
4 Consequences: Why do we need to assess our students?
5 Decisions: When do we need to assess our students?
6 Interpretations: What should we assess?
7 Assessment records: how can we record our students' assessment performance?

Part III: Applying this approach in your classroom
8 Developing assessment task templates
9 Creating language assessment tasks
10 Combining assessment tasks to make classroom-based assessments
11 Administrative procedures and instructions
12 Scoring students' test performance and reporting the results

Part IV: A systematic approach to classroom-based assessment
13 Example assessments
Appendix1: Checklist of things to think about before using a language assessment
Appendix 2: Parts of an assessment task template
Appendix 3: Answers to activities in Chapter 2 and 3