The examination and analyses of baseline assessment has become one of the most controversial issues in British education. The case in favour of is trongt: how can National Curriculum assessment at age seven and beyond be meaningful if children's capability at the start of schooling is unknown? Without this information children, parents and teachers can have no knowledge of the added value of schooling. The case against argues that labelling at the start of schooling is a self-fulfilling process likely to be discriminatory and diminishing for the very children who can best be helped by schooling. This volume examines and analyzes these issues in the second pamphlet of OMEP.