Tests ‘Damaging’ to School System

The national testing system in British schools is being misused to the detriment of children’s education, says a report from a committee of MPs.
The Commons schools, children and families committee says teachers spend too much time “teaching to the test”.
“The inappropriate use of national testing could lead to damaging consequences,” warns the report.
Schools Minister Jim Knight welcomed MPs’ recognition that the “principle of national testing is sound”.
With hundreds of thousands of 11-year-olds in England taking “Sats” tests this week, the select committee report warns that the tests are being used in a way that does not benefit children or the schools system.
“In an effort to drive up national standards, too much emphasis has been placed on a single set of tests and this has been to the detriment of some aspects of the curriculum and some students,” says committee chairman Barry Sheerman.
While supporting the idea of national tests, the report from MPs says that an “over-emphasis” on their results can distort how children are taught and “children’s access to a balanced education is being compromised”.
It also criticises the single-level tests which are being piloted as a possible alternative.
These tests, taken when teachers think pupils are ready to go up a level, are likely to perpetuate the drawbacks of the “Sats”, such as narrowing the curriculum, suggests the report.
And it warns that the single-level tests’ “one-way ratchet” system will lead to an “artificial” improvement in results, in which pupils will be “certified to have achieved a level of knowledge and understanding which they do not in truth possess”.
The report calls for a reform of the school performance tables, which for primary schools are based on the national test results. It suggests that accountability should be based on a wider range of measures, including Ofsted reports.
Schools Minister Jim Knight defended the use of national tests as part of the process of assessing progress for pupils, schools and the education system.
“Along with teachers’ own judgements and Ofsted reports, tests are a tool which help pupils and their parents to understand how well they are doing, help parents and teachers to understand how well their school is doing, and help the public to scrutinise the performance of the schools system. That’s why they are here to stay. Parents don’t want to go back to a world where the achievements of schools are hidden from them.”
Mr. Knight was asked on the Today programme on BBC Radio Four whether pupils were being put under too much stress at too early an age.
“If you don’t have the tests at 11 and 14 then there’s a danger that children then hit the very high stakes, high stress of GCSEs across the whole curriculum – not just English, maths and science – and the preparation that they get through sitting these Sats at 11 and 14 is, in that respect, good for them even though it might be a slight level of stress.”
But Christine Blower, acting general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, said the report identified the “poisonous effects of testing”.
“The government now stands isolated on the future of national curriculum testing. It has steadfastly resisted the mounting evidence of the damage caused by the tests to the curriculum and children’s learning,” said Ms. Blower.
Chris Keates of the NASUWT teachers’ union said: “It is pleasing to note that some aspects of the report confirm what the NASUWT has been saying for years, that the root of the problem is not the system of national testing but the performance league tables and other aspects of the not-fit-for-purpose accountability regime into which the test results are fed.”
John Dunford, leader of the ASCL head teachers’ union, said that the government should now “finally take seriously this groundswell of disapproval of the current testing regime”.
“The original purpose of examinations, to assess students’ progress, has become confused with school accountability and the performance management of teachers,” said Dr. Dunford.
The heads’ union calls for random sampling to monitor standards, rather than targets based on national tests.

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England
Age 5: Teacher assessment of children’s all-round development against the Foundation Stage profile, or the Early Years Foundation Stage profile from September 2008.
Age 7: Key Stage 1 national tests available in English and maths, marked in school and used to inform assessments by teachers, who decide the level achieved.
Age 11: Key Stage 2 national tests in English, maths and science, marked externally, school’s results published nationally. In some areas, tests of various types for those seeking grammar school places, marked externally, results private.
Age 14: Key Stage 3 national tests in English, maths and science, marked externally, school’s results published nationally.
Single level tests are being piloted. These are not age-specific but are taken when a child’s teacher thinks he or she has reached the next national curriculum level.

Wales
Age 4/5: Statutory teacher assessment in language skills, mathematics skills, and personal and social skills takes place within seven weeks of children starting primary school.
Age 7: Statutory teacher assessment in English (and Welsh), maths and science.
Age 10: Cross-curricular “skills tests” in numeracy, literacy and problem-solving mandatory from 2008, results private.
Age 11: Key Stage 2 national tests in English (Welsh), maths and science are optional but with statutory teacher assessments, schools’ results available locally.
Age 14: Key Stage 3 national tests in English (Welsh), maths and science, optional, marked externally, school’s results available locally, plus statutory teacher assessments in English (Welsh), maths, science, history, geography, design and technology, information technology, modern foreign languages, art, music and physical education.

Northern Ireland
Age 8: Statutory tests in English (or Irish) and maths, marked in school, along with teacher assessments against attainment targets.
Age 11: Statutory tests in English (or Irish) and maths, marked in school, along with teacher assessments against attainment targets.
Transfer tests in English (Irish), maths and science and technology for those seeking grammar school places, marked externally, results private: due to end in 2008, replacements under debate.
Age 14: Key Stage 3 national tests in English (Irish*), maths and science are now optional, marked externally, school’s results available locally, as well as formal teacher assessments.
Pupil Profiles – annual reports – are replacing these statutory assessments.

Scotland
Ages 5-14: National tests (now called assessments) in reading, writing and maths, corresponding roughly to Key Stages 1–3 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland except pupils are not tested at a specific age or stage, but “when ready” at teachers’ discretion. Marked internally, results private.
The Scottish Executive promotes the idea that “assessment is for learning”. For national and international comparative purposes a sample of children is tested separately for an annual Survey of Achievement.

Why are they called “Sats”?
Officially they aren’t, according to England’s National Assessment Agency (NAA) – though that has become the almost universal name for them
In 1991 the Conservatives had a trial run of Standard Assessment Tasks (hence “Sats”) for six and seven-year-olds in infant schools across England and Wales.
Originally they were practical “tasks” rather than pencil-and-paper tests. In science, for example, groups had to experiment with rocks, feathers, and plastic to see whether they would float or sink in water.
The then education secretary, Kenneth Clarke, changed them to written tests which all pupils could take simultaneously. So national curriculum testing was born, but the old acronym stuck.
Not to be confused with the totally different SATs (pronounced as initials – “S-A-T” – rather than as a word) used in the US for assessing people’s college potential.
Dating from 1926 and named at various times Scholastic Achievement Tests, Scholastic Assessment Tests and Scholastic Aptitude Tests, they are a registered trade mark of the non-profit College Board association.