Failing all tests

Anastasia De Waal, 17 July 2009

Problems with primary testing, from distorting the curriculum to painting a misleadingly positive view of basic standards in primary school, have been at the forefront of the school standards debate for well over a year now.

One of the issues with the Key Stage 2 ‘Sats’ tests (taken in the last year of primary) is the face-value results that they are turning out. The fact that over a quarter of primary leavers fail to achieve to the expected level in maths and English is frequently taken to be an indictment of low school standards. Yet below the surface even this achievement figure has been shown to be inflated, with secondary school teachers revealing stark disparities between pupils’ performance in the end of primary Sats and their actual abilities. Research we did last summer, for example, showed that the majority of Year 7 teachers surveyed had found their pupils’ Key Stage 2 Sats results to be higher than the pupils’ true levels.
Primary school teachers, in turn, have long been expressing concerns that the pressure to achieve Sats benchmarks is compelling them to teach to the test. A scenario which is perceived to narrow the curriculum and focus disproportionately on so-called ‘borderline’ pupils – children at a level where coaching will bring them just over the benchmark.
In other words there are fundamental problems with Sats. However it now transpires that there are also practical critical weaknesses. Today’s Times Educational Supplement (TES) reports that teachers across England are continuing to raise concerns about the quality of Sats marking this year, particularly in the writing tests. Stuart Powell, head of a primary in Canterbury, for example, has expressed ‘alarm’ at the inconsistent marking of his pupils papers. He has given an example of questionable marking, which is published in the TES, where two conspicuously different levels of work have been given the same scores. Extracts from the two (taken from the TES) are indeed alarming:

Paper 1
‘The noise subsides as students settle down. What had been a cacophony louder than a rock festival is now a murmur quieter than a cricket. Stragglers rush past in dribs and drabs, worrying about how angry their teachers will be.’

Paper 2
‘I was in the market and all people were rushing around. It smell like a pig! Everyone was dropping the food in the basket. The food was nice but the people wasn’t! I was woking round the market to buy a chocolate.’
Both of the above pieces were awarded three marks out of eight.

What is clear is that a lethal combination of political pressure on the one hand and plain incompetence on the other has rendered testing in primary schools highly destructive. Testing, for both the purposes of national accountability and a gauge of where pupils are at is hugely important. Testing today is however achieving neither. That the Key Stage 2 Sats are not working has now become apparent to the point that the government has, much more explicitly than ever, indicated their imminent axe. However the proposed alternative, what is called ‘single level testing’, also appears to be beleaguered. Political pressure for these tests to work immediately and inadequate piloting provide little assurance of an effective testing regime.