ational tests at seven and 11 do not provide accurate information about individual pupils or the national picture, says a professor of educational assessment. They also create “irresistible pressures” to teach to the tests, says Dylan Wiliam of King’s College London in Level Best?, published by the Association of Teachers and Lecturers. Teachers can raise scores without improving real achievement, he says.
Successive governments have misunderstood the original plans for national assessment, particularly that learning entitlement should depend on achievement rather than age, says Professor Wiliam. This was compounded by basing the tests on programmes of study designed for each key stage rather than on attainment targets. As a result, level 4 is not the same in KS2 as in KS3. The levels must be made comparable between key stages, says the report.
The tests should be replaced by a system based on teacher assessments, moderated by a large range of tests and tasks performed by a random selection of pupils. “The Government would have undistorted information about the real levels of achievementI and teachers would have information about students that would inform their teaching”, Professor Wiliam concludes.
Details from www.askatl.org.uk
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