Introduction and Context Setting

The first chapter of the monograph reviews the work of academic literacies in two phases: (1) the work associated with testing for student access, redress, selection and placement, and (2) the work of testing for benchmarking and assessing the literacies needs of students and how these might be addressed in and by curriculum. The chapter looks at the historical and educational contexts of schooling and higher education and how literacies testing was seen as an appropriate contribution to improving higher education responses to inequalities and underpreparedness of both students and institutions. It describes the roles of testing in alternative access, student selection and placement.