Memorandum submitted by the General Teaching
Council for England (GTC)
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The GTC hopes that the Education and Skills
Select Committee (ESSC) will, as a result of this inquiry, urge
the Government to undertake a fundamental and urgent review of
the testing and assessment regime in maintained schools.
England's pupils are among the most frequently
tested in the world, but tests in themselves do not raise standards.
Tests are used for too many purposes and this compromises their
reliability and validity. The tests can depress pupils' motivation
and increase anxiety. They do not adequately serve the interests
of parents or pupils and they lead to a narrowed curriculum and
encourage "teaching to the test". The system diminishes
teachers' professional judgements because summative outcomes reached
by the teacher carry less public weight than the outcomes from
end of Key Stage (KS) tests, although the received wisdom that
KS tests and public examinations are error-free methods of assessing
pupil attainment is misleading.
GTC'S PROPOSALS
Ongoing classroom assessment combined with a timely
use of a nationally devised bank of tests
Continued Government support for
teachers' use of assessment for pupil learning to ensure it has
maximum impact across schools.
The development of a nationally-devised
bank of tests/tasks to be used during the key stage when the teacher
judges that the pupil/pupils are ready.
Teachers overseeing all forms of
assessment including the bank of tests, and their professional
judgments on pupils' performance being given increasing weight
over time.
Increased Government investment in
teachers' assessment skills.
School Improvement and Accountabilityfocused
away from the centre and towards the community, parents and pupils
The development of a richer dialogue
between schools and parents based on enhanced information resulting
from teachers' assessment of their pupils.
An entitlement for parents to be
fully and regularly informed about progress and attainment.
Using the School Profile to communicate
a broader range of school accountability information to parents.
Monitoring National Standardsa more cost
effective and efficient system of collecting data
Introducing a system of cohort sampling
involving a limited number of pupils in a limited number of schools
to collect data for monitoring national standards.
ASSESSMENT IN
THE FUTURE:
BUILDING THE
CASE FOR
CHANGE
Introduction
1. The General Teaching Council for England
(GTC) warmly welcomes the Education and Skills Select Committee's
(ESSC) inquiry into testing and assessment. We hope that the report
the Committee will publish as a result of this inquiry will persuade
the Government to undertake an urgent and fundamental review of
the testing and assessment regime in maintained schools. We also
hope that this leads to the implementation of changes to rebalance
the role of assessment in education and refocus the importance
of teachers' professional judgement in how pupils are assessed
in the future.
2. The proposals in this memorandum are
based on the view that a single approach to pupil assessment is
currently being used for too many purposes and that assessment
in all its forms should be fit for purpose, place the least possible
burden on pupils, teachers and schools and have the least possible
adverse effect on the curriculum. The GTC's proposals have been
widely discussed with teachers, head teachers, parents, governors,
national agencies and representatives of local authorities through
a series of over 20 events across England and a major national
conference. Further GTC events on assessment will take place over
the summer.
3. The GTC continues to be convinced that
the existing assessment regime needs to be changed. Evidence from
teachers at GTC consultative events in 2006 and 2007 shows that
the current system finds schools giving too much emphasis to end
of Key Stage (KS) test results and performance tables at the expense
of the longer-term needs of the children and young people they
endeavour to serve. A summary of the views expressed by teachers
at four principal GTC events is attached at Appendix 1. It is
a concern shared by many that the accountability regime inhibits
the capacity of schools to deliver sustainable personalised learning
and limits local influence on schooling.
4. The GTC is the independent professional
body for teaching. Its main duties are to regulate the teaching
profession and to advise the Secretary of State on a range of
issues that concern teaching and learning. The Council acts in
the public interest to help to raise standards in education.
THE EXTENT
AND IMPACT
OF TESTING
AND ASSESSMENT
5. England's pupils are some of the most
frequently tested in the world. The average pupil in England will
take at least 70 tests and examinations before leaving school.
The system employs 54,000 examiners and moderators dealing with
25 million test scripts a year (Skidmore, P 2003). However, despite
the very significant resources required to conduct them, tests
do not in themselves raise standards, as the DfES Primary Strategy
Excellence and Enjoyment 2003 acknowledged.
6. Pupils understand that the KS tests represent
high stakes for themselves, their teachers and their school. Evidence
from teachers indicates that high stakes testing has a narrowing
effect upon the curriculum, by moving the focus of curriculum
delivery away from being broad and balanced to a narrower one
based on test content. Research studies indicate that high stakes
testing can depress pupils' motivation and increase their anxiety
(Harlen, Wynne and Crick and Ruth Deakin 10:2, p169-207).
7. The tests are not integrated into pupils'
normal classroom work; they are set at arm's length from teachers'
professional judgements. Summative outcomes reached by the teacher
carry less public weight than outcomes from the end-of KS tests
with the exception of the arrangements at the end of KS1. Throughout
the system, assessment for accountability is given precedence
over on-going formative assessment that supports learning.
8. Assessment for Learning (AfL) is the
type of formative assessment that supports learning. One of the
substantial benefits of AfL is that it encourages learners to
take a role in their progress and development and to develop the
capacity for self-assessment and peer assessment. AfL also supports
teacher planning and teaching and the away in which curriculum
and resources are organised to optimise learning. The system of
national tests ignores these processes.
9. Parents' legitimate wishes to know about
their children's learning and progress are not best served by
the single measure that is the outcome of end-of KS testing. Nor
do the outcomes best demonstrate schools' accountability to their
parents and local community. Evidence indicates that when parents
make judgements about the quality of a school they do not use
the school's position on published league tables as their main
criterion (GfK NOP Social Research 2005). Parents require broadened
and enriched sources of information about their local schools.
The case for change
10. The assessment system relies upon the
use of any given test for too many purposes and, as the GTC argues,
this compromises the reliability and validity of the information
obtained. The system creates tensions that have had a negative
impact upon the nature and quality of the education that some
of our children and young people receive. These tensions may impede
the full realisation of new approaches to education, including
more personalised learning.
11. The received wisdom that KS tests and
external public examinations are error free methods of assessing
pupil attainment is misleading. All methods of assessment are
prone to error. As Professor Paul Black argues, it is unproven
that assessing pupil attainment by the use of tests is less error
prone than relying on teachers' assessment. Other evidence suggests
that on a particular day, at KS3, 30% of pupils and at KS4, 40%
of pupils have been given the wrong level. (Wiliam D. 2007)
12. The outcomes from the end-of KS testing
are also used as a measure of standards over time. The technical
limitations of the end of KS tests and the tensions within the
national assessment system may mean that the use of these data
in this way is flawed. Questions have been raised about a significant
margin of error that could be involved in the testing process
and therefore its reliability as the basis of long term policy
formation.
13. Furthermore, there have also been issues
raised by teachers and others about the extent to which the tests
assess the actual attainment of pupils as opposed to their performance
on a particular day. Other well documented concerns include the
narrowness of the tests, the "drilling" of pupils in
preparation and the backwash effect on curriculum breadth and
flexibility.
14. 2020 Vision recognised that national
assessment tests are not primarily diagnostic tools to ascertain
pupils' learning needs. Nor do they recognise or adequately record
the extent to which pupils have developed the desired skills and
aptitudes. The review recommended that the Government commission
a group to report on the national curriculum and its assessment
"as a matter of priority". The Council strongly supports
the group's recommendation for this review.
15. The Government should shift the balance
of schools' accountability away from the centre and towards the
community, parents and pupils, enabling improved dialogue with
parents and less undue focus on national performance measures.
16. The DfES Making Good Progress document
proposes twice yearly externally-marked "progress" tests
and targets in addition to the current end-of KS attainment tests
and threshold targets. This assessment approach would increase
the number of tests a pupil must take and the pressures created
by performance tables would remain.
17. A preferable system would be the GTC's
proposals for a national bank of tests/tasks which teachers could
use when pupils are ready, rather than tests that meet the needs
of the system. The bank of tests/tasks would support teachers'
summative assessment and could be used in conjunction with AfL.
This would, in the longer term, promote a far closer relationship
between formative and summative assessment than exists currently.
18. The current assessment system does not
sit well with the local cross-institutional collaborative approach
required to give all 14-19 year olds the right to study the new
diplomas. Their introduction provides the opportunity to begin
the process of moving away from an assessment system dominated
by the purposes of quality control and accountability and assessment
of learning towards a more balanced model with a greater element
of diagnostic and formative assessment for learning.
19. The GTC believes that there is a tension
between the Government's commitment to personalised learning in
14-19 education, and more localised and responsive structures
to support it, and the current emphasis on national external examinations
and national performance tables as currently configured. The 14-19
phase should be established as a continuum for learners to move
away from the break at 16, which performance tables encourage.
20. The GTC supports more localised 14-19
performance information that reflects area-based collaborative
provision and area-based inspection involving institutional self-evaluation
where appropriate.
Summary of the GTC's assessment proposals
21. The GTC supports a comprehensive review
of the purposes of assessment, the type of information it generates
and who uses it and how. Assessment, testing and coursework are
means to an end, not ends in themselves. A review needs to start
with identifying the key purposes that we need the future assessment
system to support and the most effective ways of achieving them.
22. In the GTC's view, the design of a future
assessment system should therefore be underpinned by three core
purposes that focus on providing information about the learner,
the school and the system. These are:
supporting teaching and learning;
providing public information and
accountability; and
monitoring national standards.
Principles
23. The GTC's proposals on assessment around
the three purposes are based on the following key principles:
a commitment to using teacher professional
judgement in the assessment system to better effect than the current
arrangements permit;
enabling teachers to carry out assessment
processes more effectively, so that the quality of pupil learning
is further enhanced and standards of achievement are improved;
separating the purposes of assessment
so that the use of assessment for accountability no longer takes
precedence over assessment for developing learning; and
creating an assessment model for
the future that involves robust and transparent processes in order
to withstand public scrutiny.
GTC PROPOSALS
Assessment to support learning
"Assessment should be about finding out
what the children know so we can move them forward. It's not about
a single test result, so stop national testing and trust in teacher
assessment".
Teacher, GTC event, Manchester
Assessment for Learning (AfL)
24. The Government should continue to invest
in AfL through the National Strategies working with the Assessment
Reform Group (ARG) and ensure that AfL approaches are better embedded
in the culture of schools. Local authorities and other local networks
should support schools' and teachers' capacity to conduct assessment
effectively, and aim to revitalise pupil and teacher learning
in the process.
Bank of tests/tasks
"If I could change on thing about assessment
it would be to abolish KS2 tests. This would alleviate pressure
on children and staff. It would also allow upper KS2 children
to enjoy learning and explore their natural curiosity".
Teacher, GTC event, Bristol
25. The Government should introduce a range
of nationally devised tests/tasks which individual teachers could
use with their pupils in the classroom when the teacher judges
that the pupil(s) is/are ready. The tests/tasks would initially
be used for summative purposes. Over time the range of tests/tasks
would be expanded so that teachers would effectively choose from
a bank of resources that would be used to confirm or challenge
their own summative judgements. The tests would replace the current
universal end of KS tests. The information generated during and
at the end of the key stage would be used by the school, local
authority, parents and pupils themselves to move learning forward.
Teacher assessment
26. A teacher assessment model should be
implemented incrementally. In the immediate term, AfL would be
used for formative purposes and the bank of tests/tasks would
be used summatively. Longer term, teachers would be working towards
a position where all forms of pupil assessment, whatever their
purpose, involve an increasing degree of teacher professional
judgement.
Teacher learning
27. The GTC's proposals should be supported
by increased Government investment in teachers' assessment skills.
These include better support for all teachers during initial training
and continued professional learning, including professional/peer
moderation activities, and more specialist assessment career paths
for teachers to lead assessment processes across schools and localities.
Assessment for school improvement and accountability
"Teachers feel they are sufficiently
accountable in terms of quantity of information; it is the quality
and nature of information that needs to be addressed".
Teacher, GTC event, Manchester
28. The increased investment in AfL, the
use of an increasing range of assessment tests/tasks by teachers
and the development of moderation processes in schools would provide
the means for teachers to develop a relationship with parents
based on a richer and better informed dialogue.
29. As part of the school's accountability
to its stakeholders, parents and pupils should be entitled to
be fully and regularly informed about progress and attainment,
with information being wider than a report of levels and grades.
Information must be provided in a timely way so that it can be
used as the basis for any improvement strategy. Entitlement to
better information would be a better basis for engagement in school
evaluation and improvement processes.
30. As part of the New Relationship with
Schools (NRwS), the GTC believes that the Government should endow
schools with greater responsibility for communicating their accountability
information to parents via the school profile on individual and
collective pupil progress. This would include assessment information
and draw on school self-evaluation and inspection findings. The
GTC is committed to this school based model of accountability
and believes that it has more valuable information to offer parents
than the de-contextualised and incomplete comparisons between
schools published in performance tables.
Assessment for monitoring national standards
"We are enthusiastic that this system
may enable a broader, more accurate assessment base across the
whole curriculum".
Teacher, GTC event, London
31. The Government should introduce a system
of cohort sampling as the most cost effective and efficient way
to monitor national standards. A limited number of pupils should
be tested in a limited number of schools. Different pupils could
be given different tests in order to cover a broad range across
the curriculum. No pupil would take more than one test. Tests
would contain common questions that allowed all pupils in the
sample to be placed on a common scale. In the longer term, such
a system for national monitoring should replace the use of the
present universal testing model. In the shorter term a cohort
sampling system should be trialled.
GTC PROPOSALS: DETAILED
DISCUSSION
Assessment to support learning
"The teacher and the school are best
placed to known their children through using their professional
judgement. Children are not commodities or `raw material'".
Teacher, GTC event, London
Assessment for Learning (AfL)
The Government should continue to invest in
Assessment for Learning (AfL) through the National Strategies
working with the Assessment Reform Group (ARG) and ensure that
AfL approaches are better embedded in the culture of schools.
Local authorities and other local networks should support schools'
and teachers' capacity to conduct assessment effectively, and
aim to revitalise pupil and teacher learning in the process. (para
24)
32. The Government is already investing
in AfL through the national strategies. Helping to develop whole
school approaches. AfL is critical because it offers the potential
for radically changing the way that teachers and pupils interact.
More than simply one of a number of strands of school strategy,
it lies at the heart of any personalised learning vision for the
classroom.
33. The Government should consider how best
to continue developing AfL best practice and maintain its momentum.
The GTC endorses the recommendation in the Gilbert Review report
Teaching and Learning 2020 Vision that AfL should be a
priority for teaching and learning and that resources should be
put in place to ensure that it is better embedded in schools.
34. Local authorities and the many collaborative
partnerships and federations of schools and other institutions
working together should continue to have a key role in supporting
schools to develop AfL and assessment communities across schools
and their localities. This is particularly important because GTC
dialogue with teachers indicates that even in those areas that
have been involved in AfL action research there remains considerable
diversity in school approaches to AfL.
Bank of tests/tasks
The Government should introduce a range of
nationally devised tests/tasks which individual teachers could
use with their pupils in the classroom when the teacher judges
that the pupil(s) is/are ready. The tests/tasks would be used
for summative purposes. Over time the range of tests/tasks would
be expanded so that teachers would effectively choose from a bank
of resources that would be used to confirm their own summative
judgements. The tests would replace the current universal end
of Key Stage tests. The information generated during and at the
end of the key stage would be used by the school, local authority,
parents and pupils themselves to move learning forward. (para
25)
35. Over time and as teachers become familiar
with and skilled in using a range of nationally devised tests/tasks,
they should increasingly be used to confirm teachers' existing
summative assessments of pupil progress and achievement.
36. In the early stages, schools should
have the option of tests/tasks being externally marked. Teachers
would become increasingly involved in the analysis of outcomes
so that the tests/tasks would play a key role in teaching and
learning. Teachers' involvement in marking and analysis should
also be linked to professional development opportunities.
37. Teachers would be encouraged to use
the evidence on which they based their judgement about the timing
of the test as part of professional/peer moderation activities
in preparation for working towards a more integrated model of
teacher assessment. Teachers would collect evidence from test/task
outcomes during and at the end of each KS so that the information
can be used formatively to adapt teaching as well as the basis
for summative decision-making. The evidence derived from the test/tasks
would be subject to assessment moderation processes.
38. The range of materials would increase
in the longer term into a bank of varied assessment materials
on which the teacher could draw. The teaching profession, particularly
those with assessment expertise, should be involved in the development
of test/task materials, including on-line materials. The information
generated would be used by the school, local authority, parents
and pupils themselves to move learning forward.
Teacher assessment
A teacher assessment model should be implemented
incrementally. In the immediate term, AfL would be used for formative
purposes and the bank of tests/tasks would be used summatively.
Longer term, teachers would be working towards a situation where
all forms of pupil assessment, whatever their purpose, involve
an increasing degree of teacher professional judgement. (para
26)
39. The GTC supports the findings of the
systematic review (Harlen, 2004) that assessment by teachers has
the potential to provide summative information about students'
achievements because teachers can build up a picture of individual
students' attainment across a range of activities and goals. However,
teacher evidence to the GTC over time suggests that many teachers
do not feel they are currently in a position, or work within a
structure, that would allow them to undertake all forms of pupil
assessment. It is for this reason that the GTC recommends an incremental
approach to implementation using AfL and a bank of tests/tasks.
40. The GTC remains convinced that in the
longer term all forms of pupil assessment should involve an increasing
degree of teacher professional judgement. This would create a
richer educational experience for all pupils, with assessment
integrated better into other elements of teaching and learning,
especially for those pupils at risk of under achievement whose
interests are not being served by the current use of statutory
tests and external public examinations.
Teacher learning
The GTC's proposals should be supported by
increased Government investment in teachers' assessment skills.
These include better support for all teachers during initial training
and continued professional learning, including professional/peer
moderation activites, and more specialist assessment career paths
for teachers to lead assessment processes across schools and localities.
(para 27)
41. There needs to be further investment
in teachers' assessment skills along with and inside the AfL framework.
Assessment needs to be a stronger element of the professional
standards framework, including qualified teacher status (QTS)
and induction standards. Managing assessment across a subject
area, a department or faculty and as part of a whole school approach
should also be a critical component of professional standards
for leadership.
42. It is also vital that specialist assessment
roles are created in every school. The Chartered Examiner route
developed by the National Assessment Agency (NAA) to revitalise
the teaching profession's involvement in public examiner roles
must be extended to roles in National Curriculum assessment at
all KS and in leading AfL in individual schools. The Government
needs to invest in training and support for teachers to undertake
these roles.
43. The priority for embedding AfL in schools
as recommended by the Gilbert Review must be underpinned by making
it a priority focus of teacher learning, as the Review Group also
indicated.
Assessment for school improvement and accountability
The increased investment in AfL, the use of
an increasing range of assessment tests/tasks by teacher and the
development of moderation processes in schools would provide the
means for teachers to develop a relationship with parents based
on a richer and better informed dialogue than currently. (para
28)
As part of the school's accountability to
its key stakeholders, pupils and parents should be entitled to
be fully and regularly informed about progress and attainment,
with information being wider than level and grades and provided
in a timely way so that the information can be used as the basis
for any improvement strategy. Entitlement to better information
would be a better basis for engagement in school evaluation and
improvement processes. (para 29)
44. Research (Black et al, 2003)
into AfL comment only feedback to pupils found "the provision
of comments to students helps parents to focus on and support
the student's learning rather than focus on uninformed efforts
to interpret a mark or grade and/or simply urge their child to
work harder". The GTC believes that AfL approaches have
the potential for providing pupils and parents with a source of
information on progress that involves them as partners.
45. The GTC's proposals to replace KS testing
with a bank of tests/tasks also add new opportunities better to
involve individual pupils and their parents in a continuing and
well-informed dialogue with teachers about learning and progress.
These proposals would support better and more timely information
that focuses as much on ongoing progress as the review of summative
outcomes.
46. The importance of more timely information
for parents based on progress was theme emerging from some recent
focus groups of parents commissioned from BRMB Social Research
by the GTC. The parents in the study were concerned that information
given to them should represent a "call to action"
if necessary rather than a retrospective summary based on assessment
levels on which parents were unable to act. (BRMB, 2007) A report
of the findings of this study is at Appendix 2. (not printed).
47. A MORI poll of parents commissioned
by the GTC (2005) showed how much value parents placed on their
communication with schools and their children's teachers. 97%
of the sample appreciated verbal feedback with a further 71% finding
written feedback in the form of a regular report very useful.
These views were confirmed by the findings of a parent focus group
carried out by NOP (2005) for the GTC. Here "there was
a strong desire for more written information to complement the
academic results received" and more frequent verbal information
as it "was considered to be more tailored to the individual
pupil and offered the opportunity for discussion with parents".
48. The BRMB study revealed not only that
parents wanted increased information on progress and a greater
range of information mechanisms. The findings reflected "that
parents generally did not understand or were confused about how
their child was assessed at school, particularly during the primary
school years". Besides the confusion about what the assessment
levels really meant, parents "had little recall of when
teacher-led assessment would take place, the range of methods
that were likely to be used, nor the role of the assessment methods
being used". The GTC believes that an enhanced dialogue
between schools and parents must start with more information and
explanation about the components of the assessment system.
49. The GTC broadly supports the NRwS framework
developments that include:
the greater weight given to school
self-evaluation and schools managing their own data;
the new School Improvement Partner
(SIP) role working to support self- evaluation and improvement
processes in all schools;
a more differentiated model of shorter,
sharper Ofsted inspections resulting in shorter and more accessible
reports; and
the introduction of the School Profile.
50. Research (Rudduck 2004) suggests that
schools effectively involving pupils in shaping the way that teaching
and learning is organised could have benefits for school improvement.
Evidence collected by the GTC also reflects increasing efforts
by schools to integrate parental consultation into school self-evaluation.
51. As part of the NRwS, the GTC believes
that the Government should endow schools with greater responsibility
for communicating their accountability information to parents
via the school profile on individual and collective pupil progress,
including assessment information and drawing on school self-evaluation
and inspection findings. The GTC is committed to this school based
model of accountability and believes that it has more valuable
information to offer parents than the de-contextualised and incomplete
comparisons between schools as published in performance tables.
52. Professional learning for teachers is
the key to preparing schools to take on more responsibility for
collecting, using and interpreting performance data as part of
their accountability to their stakeholders. The Government should
enable schools to focus on professional learning that is based
on combining quantitative and qualitative pupil level data and
using it, in partnership with pupils and parents, to plan the
personalised learning of children and young people. 2020 Vision
indicates that the analysis and use of datawith a specific
focus on AfLis an important skill for the school workforce.
Teacher learning therefore must meet the challenge of ensuring
data is used properly and coherently in schools.
Assessment for monitoring national standards
The Government should introduce a system of
cohort sampling as the most cost effective and efficient way to
monitor national standards. A limited number of pupils should
be tested in a limited number of schools. Different pupils could
be given different tests in order to cover a broad range across
the curriculum. No pupil would take more than one test. Test would
contain common questions that allowed all pupils in the sample
to be placed on a common scale. In the longer term, such a system
for national monitoring should replace the use of the present
universal testing model. In the shorter term a cohort sampling
system should be trialled. (para 31)
"This potentially sounds better, cheaper,
less stressful".
Teacher, GTC event, London
53. The use of end of KS test outcomes to
monitor standards over time may be flawed because there are a
number of technical issues about the tests.
54. There are problems of scaling with,
for example, a pupil assessed at the bottom of Level 4 being nearer
in terms of marks to the top of Level 3 than the top of Level
4. There is weak criterion referencing involved in the system
of testing. There is also a problem with the public demand that
tests maintain consistent standards over time. In order to achieve
this it would require everything related to the tests to remain
exactly the same. In fact the tests are curriculum linked and
the context on which they are based has been subject to constant
change and even if that had not been the case, students have become
better at taking the tests themselves (Oates 2004, 2005).
55. The GTC, therefore, proposes a system
of cohort sampling involving a limited number of pupils in a limited
number of schools and utilising a matrix test structure. This
would mean that numerous tests could be used across the sample,
thus widening the breadth of the curriculum that is being tested.
Common questions would appear in any two or more tests by which
pupils in the sample who take different tests could be put onto
a common scale. No pupil would be required to take more than one
test. The tests would be administered by teachers though external
support could be called upon in relation to conducting practical
tests. A detailed explanation of how monitoring by cohort sampling
works is at Appendix 3.
56. This system would be relatively inexpensive
as test items can be used repeatedly over time and questions can
be replaced without the need to develop whole new tests.
57. The current testing burden placed on
schools and students would be greatly reduced because the cohort
would be made up of a light sampling of schools and a light sampling
of students within those schools. The distortions of the curriculum
and pressures on pupils, parents and teachers of high stakes testing
would be removed.
58. The GTC proposes an initial pilot of
the cohort sampling system by QCA, perhaps at a particular KS.
In the long term we propose that the current universal testing
model for national monitoring be replaced by cohort sampling.
CONCLUSION
"These proposals would lead to a more
creative curriculumwonderful ideathis would make
teaching more enjoyable. How can we persuade the Government?"
Teachers, GTC event, Bristol
59. The GTC anticipates that the ESSC will
receive very few submissions to this inquiry from the education
community arguing that the assessment system should remain and
continue in its current form. We are convinced that arguments
will centre not on whether the assessment system should be changed,
but how. We hope that the Select Committee will urge the Government
to undertake a measured and wide-ranging consultation involving
parents, pupils, teachers and all those with an interest in education
and assessment. We owe it to our pupils to replace the system
we have with one that genuinely serves the interests of pupils,
parents, schools and the public. Over-hasty change runs the risk
of replacing it with a new but equally dysfunctional system.
60. The GTC believes that its proposals
for change would be supported by the teaching profession, parents
and others because they offer a route towards countering the measurement
culture that has gained currency since the 1988 Education Reform
Act. They also reaffirm the pre-eminence of using assessment to
support teaching and learning, lift the burdens from pupils, teachers
and schools that distort the curriculum while providing information
to those to whom schools and teacher are accountable that is meaningful,
timely and reliable.
June 2007
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DfES, January 2007. Making Good Progress consultation
document.
Skidmore, P, 2003 Beyond Measure. DEMOS.
GfK NOP Social Research, 2005. Research among
parents: a qualitative study. Conducted on behalf of the GTC.
Unpublished.
Harlen, Wynne and Deakin Crick, R, Testing and
Motivation for Learning Assessment in Education Principles,
Policy and Practice, 10:2, 169-207.
Harlen, W, and Deakin Crick, R, A Systematic Review
of the Impact of Summative Assessment and Tests on Students' Motivation
for Learning. (EPPI-Centre Review); In Research Evidence in
Education Library Issue 1 London: EPPI-Centre, Social Science
Research Unit, Institute of Education, University of London.
Black, P, Presentation to Institute of Educational
Assessors National Conference. London 4 May 2007.
Black, P, Harrison, C, Lee, C, Marshall, B &
Wiliam, D 2003. Assessment for Learning: putting it into practice.
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