Assessment of Performance Unit Design and Technology Reports for Teachers

The Assessment of Performance Unit (APU) was set up in 1975 within the Department of Education and Science (DES) to promote the development of methods of assessing and monitoring the achievement of students at school, and to seek to identify the incidence of under achievement. The APU commissioned research teams to create instruments and methods of assessment and to conduct surveys in five curriculum areas: language, science, mathematics, foreign languages and design and technology. Between 1978 and 1988 surveys were carried out in these areas using samples of children aged 11, 13 (science and foreign language only), in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

[b]Aims and objectives[/b]
The APU existed to provide objective information about national standards of children’s performance at all levels of ability. Its terms of reference included making the findings available to those concerned with resource allocations within government departments, LEAs and schools.