Formative assessment is regarded as a means to provide teachers and students with information about the strengths and weaknesses of student learning with the ultimate goal of making responsive changes in teaching and learning. In Hong Kong, formative assessment has recently been promoted in schools. Through analyzing a case study, this paper aims to explore: (1) the key strategies employed by the school in assessing and improving students’ performance, (2) the effects of these strategies in student learning and (3) the challenges the teachers have encountered in practising formative assessment. The intention is to provide a living example for those teachers and policy makers who favour the use of formative assessment as the major approach to improving students’ learning.

Curriculum policy in Hong Kong is moving towards school-based curriculum development. This is reflected by the introduction of the School-based Curriculum Project Scheme by the Education Department in 1988. The aim of the Scheme is to encourage teachers to produce curriculum projects which meet the learning needs of pupils and schools. However, the Education Department selected and reproduced some of the school-based curriculum project materials for dissemination to all Hong Kong schools. This paper is a report of the study which analyses the collection and use of the disseminated projects by schools and the perceptions of the school teachers towards these projects.
香港的課程政策正邁向校本課程發展的趨勢。這是從教育署在一九八八年開始推行「以學校為本位的課程設計計劃」反映出來的。此計劃的主旨是鼓勵教師因應學生及學校的需要去設計課程教材。雖然如此，教育署卻選取及複製某些校本課程教材，並把這些教材分發到全港各學校。這份研究報告分析學校搜集和運用這些課程教材的情況，以及教師對這些教材的看法。
[Copyright of New Horizons: The Journal of Education, Hong Kong Teachers' Associationl is the property of Hong Kong Teachers' Association at http://www.hkta1934.org.hk/]

The purpose of this article is to analyse the nature of the School-based Curriculum Project Scheme (SBCPS), which was introduced into the Hong Kong education system in 1988. The aims of the scheme were to promote school-based curriculum development (SBCD) designed to meet the learning needs of pupils and to encourage teachers to solve curriculum problems. Overall, the article provides insights into the characteristics of the SBCPS which was introduced into a highly centralized context and was initiated through a highly centralized mechanism, and describes how it was implemented into Hong Kong schools. This underlines the need both to view curriculum policies critically and to recognize the impact that the prevailing culture in schools has on attempts at curriculum innovations.
[Copyright of Curriculum Journal is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0958517990100307]