Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Testing Times
Testing in UK schools may be here to stay but not in the form we know it.
How should we test, when should we test, how often should we test are the fundamental questions in current educational debate. Only one question not debated, is should we test at all? This question was hotly debated a generation ago but now testing per se seems here to stay.
The Children, schools and families select committee was set up in November 2007 to monitor the work of the DSCF, as well as Ofsted and other government bodies. It has published several reviews and papers; the most recent is the Report on Testing and Assessment published on 13th May 2008.
The committee’s report described the systems of assessment currently required by schools as placing an over-emphasis on national tests, with the risk of damaging consequences to education and to children themselves. The committee concluded from it’s research that there is a tendency in practice for teachers to focus on the content likely to be tested at the expense of the rest of the curriculum and also for teachers to spend more time with pupils who are near to reaching a government target, sometimes at the expense of other children.
This report comes in the context of several prominent groups and individuals raising concern about and opposition to the national testing regime, particularly in primary schools. The National Union of Headteachers have an ongoing campaign to reduce the SATS demands and used a national newspaper advertising campaign to express their opposition during the week when all primary schools were conducting the statutorytests. A group of well-known writers for children including Children’s Laureate, Michael Rosen also used this time to express their concern over the damaging nature of the tests.
The Commons select committee argued not for an end to national testing per se but an increase in both the amount of and the value placed on teacher assessment. The Chairman of the Committee, Barry Sheerman said,
"The committee would like to see teachers focus less on test results and corresponding league tables and more on personalised learning."
Debates about testing in schools have been ever present but the centre of the debate has moved from whether to test to how best to test.
Does the commons select committee report on testing in schools herald the start of a considered and complex debate on the extent, uses and frequency of testing and assessment in schools? The emphasis from the committee on retaining the focus on personalised learning through the testing requirements in the future sets a challenge for schools and others such as exam boards to join up the elements of good practice incorporating assessment and testing within them.
This is an opportunity for a new form of assessemnt to match the ambitions of the governments vision for 21st century learning and the technological, cultural and social context in which children learn.
For the report on the writers campaign click here
For Select Committee Report click here.