1. At all levels, assessment is a social activity and that we can understand it only by taking account of the social, cultural, economic, and political contexts in which it operates. (p. 252)
2. Assessment plays an important role in cultural and social reproduction, in allocating educational and economic opportunities, and more recently, to control curriculum and teaching. (p. 264)
3. Changes in assessment practice and design reflect changes in world view, a resulting change in epistemology, and new understandings of learning. (p. 273)
4. There are complex interactions among students, teachers, and assessment. (p. 284)
5. When designing assessment, there are trade-offs between reliability, validity, and assessment of higher order thinking skills. (p. 283)
6. Theories about intelligence and learning have implications for assessment design (p.272)
7. Although new approaches to assessment have the promise of being more equitable, performance assessments on their own will not enhance equity