Do you remember the time when people could still joke about the examination system. “Do not on any account attempt to write on both sides of the paper at once,” WC Sellar advised candidates in 1066 And All That.
Scandals over A-level marking, chronic examiner shortages, and the relatively recent phenomenon of cheating by headteachers desperate to improve their school’s league table position, make it harder than ever to be jocular about testing.
And yet, as this special supplement amply demonstrates, assessment can be a force for good as well as ill. Yes, there are major controversies over key stage tests, GCSEs and A-levels, which we examine on pages 4-7. But there is also some hope of better times ahead in the shape of the new foundation stage profile which is replacing the bewildering range of baseline assessments for reception children. The growing support for formative assessment, which places the emphasis on teacher feedback rather than marks out of 10, is another positive development, as Dylan Wiliam and Paul Black, the leading experts in the field, explain (page 8).
Meanwhile, new methods of assessing cognitive ability (page 10), emotional literacy (page 11) and spatial ability (page 12) are helping schools to create a more rounded picture of each child’s special aptitudes and needs.
It remains to be seen how much attention universities, employers - and the Government - will pay to this additional information. Their focus is usually fixed on academic grades. But surely one of the key lessons from the recent A-level marking debacle is that one should never judge young people solely by their alphabetic labels. Human beings are more complicated than that.
David Budge
Deputy editor tes
