Evolution of Writing Assessment in Hong Kong Secondary Schools: Policy, Practice, and Implications for Literacy Development

Teaching and evaluating writing is a professionally exacting process. Despite the global assessment reform movements, most teachers probably remain unfamiliar with related knowledge and skills to assess pupil writing formatively and summatively. Hence, this chapter aims to review whether the government rhetoric and teacher classroom assessment practices diverge or converge and why. It further looks into how writing assessment policies and practices have implications for literacy development. To review the writing assessment development in Hong Kong secondary schools, I adopted a documentary analysis approach by looking into the three major curriculum guides published in different decades, and the narrative frames composed by four English teachers in two secondary schools. Results of the review are presented, followed by a discussion on insightful pedagogical implications.