Testing

EXCESSIVE TESTING

’MAKING GOOD PROGRESS’ = MORE TESTS

Jane Nellist (Coventry NUT)

Every education campaigning organisation, parent group and trade union is shouting out for an end to the SATs because of their destructive nature.

Scotland never had them. Wales and Northern Ireland have ‘seen the light’ and have got rid of them. So why, when the government had the chance to show it was listening to the experts, is it now consulting and introducing a pilot scheme that will not only introduce more tests for Key Stages 2 and 3 but is also planning on paying schools extra if they reach their targets?!

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What we will end up with is a trip in the Tardis to the Victorian era with payment by results not just for schools but for individual teachers as well.

his ‘extra’ “progression premium” will be worth 5% of their pupil allocation and with no new money it is likely to mean less for some and more for others. With huge concerns about the Comprehensive Spending plans to come next year, this could mean real cuts for some schools.

The tests are supposed to be aimed at measuring progress where each pupil is supposed to achieve two levels of progress within each key stage no matter where they start from. The biggest problem is that the whole system of the National Curriculum was flawed from the very start when it was introduced by the Tories.

What we will end up with is a trip in the Tardis to the Victorian era with payment by results not just for schools but for individual teachers as well. Remember, the NUT was founded on the fight against this unworkable system over 100 years ago!

It is truly unbelievable that with all the educational research that the DfES has available to them that they are even thinking about piloting this new system from September along these lines in 10 Local Authorities.

For a start off, there are no plans to scrap the end of Key Stage SATs so these new tests, which will be additional and will be held twice a year in each of the year groups in KS 2 and 3, will actually mean potentially 28 more tests in English and maths of an hour each. Children in England are already some of the most tested pupils in the world.

Of course, this doesn’t mean that teachers will have to put their pupils through the tests every time but you can imagine can’t you, especially in those schools on the borderline, there will be an encouragement by the Head to put as many pupils through the tests just in case they get it – especially if money is at stake.

Inevitably these changes will mean even more narrowing of the curriculum and more ‘teaching to the test’. Far from informing teachers about pupil’s progress to allow them to adapt teaching to meet their needs, they will be absolutely useless. It doesn’t square with other government strategies especially the ‘Excellence and Enjoyment’ document for Primary schools and the ‘Every Child Matters’ agenda. Young people will yet again be sacrificed on the government’s bonfire of targets, testing and tables.

What has been promised by the government is that all tests will be externally set and marked. All children failing to meet these targets will also be entitled to 10 hours of individual tutoring but, again, no plans for any extra funding. No-one can doubt the value of 1:1 support with a qualified teacher for those pupils who need extra support but this needs to be funded properly with a clear strategy of how this will be delivered. For example, it is not clear when this tutoring will take place, or by whom.

Professor David Hargreaves, former chief executive of the QCA summed it up by accusing ministers of a “continuing obsession with the short term”, “a desperate determination to make discredited policies work” and “wilful blindness to anything outside the Government’s own narrow preoccupations”.

If we are serious about ending this obsessive compulsive disorder of testing and league tables on the part of the government, which is damaging not enhancing education, then all the trade unions must boycott these tests and force the government to listen to reason.