With the advent of profiling and maintaining records of achievement, the assessment of the affective characteristics of pupils has become an issue of general concern in England. The Scottish Council for Research in Education has been involved in programs investigating the assessment of individuals and the evaluation of curricula. Teachers can evaluate the impact on attitudes of their courses by using straightforward techniques. Both parents and teachers want assessments of affective characteristics to be used for two purposes: (1) formative evaluation during the course of education; and (2) summative evaluation at the end of schooling. The Scottish Headteachers sought to improve the accuracy of individual assessments in a number of ways. The first issue that the team tackled was the simplification and clarification of the characteristics to be assessed. A description of two studies illustrated two systems of assessments. The second issue that the Scottish team approached was the accuracy of individual assessments. Teachers working with the team wanted to record and report affective qualities at different levels. Statements of actual behavior observed by teachers, anchored in scales defined by crucial indices, were found to be both accurate and fair as assessments of individuals. (BAE)