PREFACE
1. Our predecessor Committee, the Education and Skills
Committee, announced its call for evidence on testing and assessment
on 20 March 2007. That Committee received written evidence over
the following months. In the light of that evidence, we decided
in November 2007 to continue the inquiry and started taking oral
evidence from 10 December 2007.
2. During the inquiry, we took evidence from: Professor
Sir Michael Barber, Expert Partner, Global Public Sector Practice,
McKinsey and Company; Professor Peter Tymms, Director of Curriculum,
Evaluation and Management, School of Education, Durham University;
Dr Ken Boston, Chief Executive, Qualifications and Curriculum
Authority (QCA); Dr Mary Bousted, General Secretary, Association
of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL); Mick Brookes, General Secretary,
National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT); Brian Lightman,
President, Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL); Keith
Bartley, Chief Executive, General Teaching Council for England
(GTC); Dr Andrew Bird, Deputy Director General, Assessment and
Qualifications Alliance; Murray Butcher, Director, Assessment
and Quality, City & Guilds; Jerry Jarvis, Managing Director,
Edexcel; Greg Watson, Chief Executive, Oxford, Cambridge and RSA
Examinations; Professor Steve Smith, Vice-Chancellor, University
of Exeter; Professor Madeleine Atkins, Vice-Chancellor, University
of Coventry; Susan Anderson, Director, Human Resources Policy;
Richard Wainer, Principal Policy Adviser, Education and Skills,
Confederation of British Industry; David Bell, Permanent Secretary;
Sue Hackman, Chief Adviser on School Standards; Jon Coles, Director,
14-19 Reform, Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF);
Jim Knight MP, Minister for Schools and Learners; Ralph Tabberer,
Director General, Schools Directorate, Department for Children,
Schools and Families.
3. In addition, we received nearly 50 written memoranda,
which have helped us with our inquiry. We would like to extend
our thanks to our Specialist Advisers, Professor Alan Smithers,
Director of the Centre for Education and Employment Research,
University of Buckingham, and Professor Dylan Wiliam, Institute
of Education, University of London.
4. There are many contested definitions in the field
of testing and assessment. For the purposes of this Report we
have had to settle on certain definitions, but this is purely
for the purposes of conveying our conclusions and such definitions
as we have chosen should not be taken to mean that, in a more
general sense, we favour any particular school of academic thought
over another. Some terms are defined in context elsewhere in this
Report. However, it is expedient to define others in advance of
the main discussion.
5. We have adopted some of the definitions set out
by the QCA in their paper Evaluating Assessment Systems.
Thus, 'assessment' is used to refer to "any instrument
or process through which student competence or attainment is evaluated
(e.g., test, teacher assessment, examination, etc.)."[1]
The term 'system' is used to refer to "the structure
and mechanism through which students are assessed". The system
is made up of such details as procedures for test development,
distribution, administration, marking, reporting, evaluating,
as well as the technical, professional, managerial and administrative
employees required to develop and operate those procedures.[2]
Although not defined by the QCA, we have used the term 'testing'
in this Report to mean a nationally administered assessment, to
include Key Stage tests and 14-19 qualifications. It follows that
the 'testing system' refers to the system, as defined by
the QCA, which serves the range of national tests.
6. The national testing system in England is complex.
The overall structure is summarised in the following two, overlapping
tables. Table 1 sets out the regime for the Early Years Foundation
Stage and Key Stages 1-4. Table 2 summarises the progression routes
for pupils aged 14 to 19.
Table 1: Early Years Foundation Stage
and Key Stages 1-4
Table 2: 14-19 progression routes
Source: QCA, 14-19 education and skills: what is
a Diploma?[3]
7. At the end of Key Stages 1-3, usually at age 7,
11 and 14, children take tests to show what progress they have
made throughout that Key Stage. These are known variously as "Key
Stage tests", "National Curriculum tests" or "SATs",
standing for Standard Assessment Tasks. The latter term is still
in common usage, although it is strictly anachronistic. Both test
results and teacher assessment results are awarded at the end
of a Key Stage. Test results are recorded as a series of levels,
from 1 to 8. The QCA states that most 7-year-olds will be at level
2; 11-year-olds at level 4; and 14-year-olds at level 5 or 6.
8. These results and the teacher assessments are
communicated to parents, along with, for comparison, a summary
of test results for children in the child's age group at their
school and the national results for the previous year. The QCA
states that Key Stage tests are not "pass or fail" tests,
but the level achieved is used to check progress and inform future
learning, for example, to indicate where extra help is needed.
The results may also be used by some schools for allocating pupils
to sets for different subjects. The Government collects the results
and uses them as a measure of schools' performance locally and
nationally.
9. At the end of Key Stage 4, children take public
examinations, usually GCSEs, and this signals the end of compulsory
education. Children who continue in school after the age of 16
may pursue a range of qualifications, including A-levels (now
divided into AS and A2 tests spread across two academic years),
the International Baccalaureate, an apprenticeship or the new
Diplomas.
10. Finally, we set out below a list of common abbreviations
used in this report.
| AfL | Assessment for Learning
|
| APU | Assessment of Performance Unit
|
| ASCL | Association of School and College Leaders
|
| ATL | Association of Teachers and Lecturers
|
| CVA | Contextual Value Added scores
|
| DCSF | Department for Children, Schools and Families
|
| DfES | Department for Education and Skills
|
| GTC | General Teaching Council for England
|
| IPPR | Institute for Public Policy Research
|
| NAA | National Assessment Agency
|
| NASUWT | National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers
|
| NFER | National Foundation for Educational Research
|
| NUT | National Union of Teachers
|
| PIRLS | Progress in International Reading Literacy Study
|
| PISA | Programme for International Student Assessments
|
| QCA | Qualifications and Curriculum Authority
|
| RAISEonline | Reporting and Analysis for Improvement through School self-Evaluation online
|
| TIMSS | Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study
|
1
Ev 22 Back
2
Ev 22 Back
3
http://www.qca.org.uk/libraryAssets/media/QCA_Diplomas_6pp.04.pdf
Back
|
