History

The EERA Network 9 was launched as a network on the topic of Student Assessment in early 1997, convened by Wynne Harlen (Scottish Council for Research in Education, Scotland) and Sandra Johnson (Consultant, France). The network’s initial interest embraced research into the validity, reliability and usefulness of new forms of student assessment and of established techniques applied in new contexts, where the students might range from pre-school children to distance learning adults, the qualities assessed could be intellectual abilities, work-related skills, attitudes or personality traits, and the assessment purposes might range from individual diagnosis to system evaluation.

In 1999, Tjeerd Plomp (University of Twente, Netherlands) and Carol Fitz-Gibbon (University of Durham, England) joined Sandra Johnson as network co-convenors, later Marja Kankaanranta and Jouni Välijärvi (both University of Jyväskylä, Finland) also became network co-convenors. In 2006, Sandra Johnson was stepping down after many years as link convenor, Tjeerd Plomp and Pekka Kupari (University of Jyväskylä, Finland) agreed to continue as a network convenors. In the network’s meeting at ECER 2008, Wilfried Bos (Institute for School Development Research, TU Dortmund University, Germany) was announced and accepted as the new convenor of Network 9, succeeding Tjeerd Plomp. Tjeerd Plomp and Pekka Kupari agreed to serve as network co-convenors.

In 2008, network members discussed the desirability of changing the name of the network and rephrase its scope. Reason for this was that that many papers presented in Network 9 are on the domain of assessment, but not necessarily just assessment of student learning. Besides, the network also includes papers in the area of programme evaluation and monitoring. This discussion resulted in a proposal for a new name (Assessment, Evaluation, Testing, and Measurement) and mission statement, which were accepted at the EERA convenors meeting at ECER 2008. For the new mission statement, see "Network Objectives".

In 2011, Monica Rosén (University of Gothenburg, Sweden) was announced and accepted as a new co-convenor of Network 9, succeeding Tjeerd Plomp, who became an emeritus convenor after serving the network for many years as link convenor and co-convenor. Tjeerd Plomp, one of the founding fathers of the European Conferences on Educational Research and the European Educational Research Association, was awarded the first Honorary Membership of Network 9 for his longstanding and continued work for the Network and within the field of Assessment, Evaluation, Testing and Measurement.