Primary assessment in England Tom Treadwell Objectives Cover - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Primary assessment in England

Tom Treadwell

Objectives

§ Cover 2018 testing arrangements for key stages 1 and 2 § Provide an overview of developments at the national level § Questions and reflections

Primary assessment in England

About the consultation § This consultation considered the long-term future of primary assessment in England. § It was mainly concerned with statutory assessment § best way to prepare children to succeed at school § best starting point to measure progress § proportionate and effective assessment system § improve end of key stage assessments § A parallel consultation sought views on the arrangements for pupils working below the standard of tests

Preparing children to succeed at school

The early years foundation stage and profile (EYFSP) § Statutory assessment to assess a child’s level of development and readiness for school at age 5 § The consultation asked for views on: § Content of the EYFSP § Level of development categories § Appropriateness for SEND pupils § Impact on teacher workload and how it is moderated

Government response

§ We will explore the possibility of reducing the number of ELGs assessed and reported on § The descriptors for a typical level of development against the ELGs will be made clearer § The ELGs will be brought in line with KS1 § We will retain the existing categorisation of ‘emerging’, ‘expected’ and ‘exceeding’ but will consider introducing an additional band within ‘emerging’ § We will review the guidance for administering the EYFSP from a workload perspective § We will review the current approach to moderation

Best starting point for measuring progress

Baseline assessment and progress measures § New accountability measures introduced in 2016 § Place greater emphasis on progress as a fairer way of assessing school effectiveness § Current progress measures use KS1 teacher assessment data as the baseline § The consultation asked for views on: § Whether we should move to a reception baseline assessment § The content and timing in the reception year § Accountability arrangements - infant, middle & junior schools § How to make KS1 teacher assessments more robust to use as a baseline

Government response

§ We intend to develop a new baseline as a statutory assessment, ready for introduction in reception by autumn 2020 § The assessment will take place in the first half of the autumn half-term § We will continue to discuss the detail of the assessment with a wide range of stakeholders as we develop the assessment § The prime focus of the assessment will be on skills which can be reliably assessed and which correlate with attainment in English and mathematics at the end of KS2 § We will continue to work with the sector to fully consider the

• ptions for progress measures for infant/middle/junior schools

Role of KS1 statutory assessments

§ If a new reception assessment were used as the baseline for measuring progress, end of KS1 assessments would no longer be used § Should end of KS1 assessment become non-statutory, once a reception baseline is fully established § Should we produce optional tests materials for use at the end of KS1 § Should STA sample end of KS1 assessments

Government response

§ We will make end of KS1 assessment non-statutory as soon as the reception baseline assessment becomes fully established (we intend to make this change from the 2022/23 academic year onwards) § We will continue to use KS1 assessments as the baseline for progress measures up until this point § We will make optional end-of-key stage 1 tests available for schools to use however they see fit. § To ensure we have an ongoing picture of standards nationally we will periodically sample key stage 1 assessment data from a small, representative sample of primary schools.

A proportionate assessment system

Statutory teacher assessment at the end of KS2

§ Schools currently report: § Teacher assessment data for reading, writing, mathematics and science § Test data in English reading, mathematics and English grammar, punctuation and spelling (GPS) § KS2 test results in English reading and mathematics are used to measure school performance in these subjects § The consultation asked for views on the continuation of statutory teacher assessment in English reading and mathematics, where test data is used for accountability purposes

KS1 grammar, punctuation and spelling test

§ Introduced in 2016, remains non-statutory for 2017

Government response

§ We will remove the statutory requirement for schools to report teacher assessment judgements at the end of KS2 where test data is used for accountability purposes. This will happen from the 2018/19 academic year onwards § The KS1 GPS test will remain non-statutory in future years

A proportionate assessment system

Multiplication tables check (MTC) § DfE plans to introduce MTC from 2019 to 2020 academic year § The consultation asks for views on: § Implementation of the check § Timing of the check § How to limit the burden of administering the MTC

Government response

§ The MTC will take place at the end of year 4. This corresponds with the point in the national curriculum by which pupils are expected to know their times tables § Schools will have a window in which they can administer the assessment and there will be no requirement for a class to take the check at the same time § The check will be brief and administered online with an offline option available if necessary. Results will be available to teachers instantly with no additional data submission burdens § We are undertaking an extensive trialling and will run a large-scale pilot in the 2018/19 academic year

Improving teacher assessment

§ Following the removal of national curriculum levels, interim TA frameworks were introduced in the 2015/16 academic year § Contain a series of ‘pupil can’ statements that make use of a ‘secure fit’ model to assess pupils § Approach is appropriate for reading, mathematics and science but writing warrants a different approach to assessment § The consultation asked for views on: § Whether the statutory assessment of writing should be made more flexible § Approaches to the assessment and moderation of writing that should be explored in the future §

Government response

§ We have moved to a more flexible approach for assessing English writing this year § Teachers can now use their discretion to ensure that, on occasion, a particular weakness does not prevent an accurate judgement of a pupil’s attainment overall being made § The pupil can statements for this subject have also been changed to place a greater emphasis on composition, while statements relating to the more ‘technical’ aspects of English writing (grammar, punctuation and spelling) are less prescriptive § The reading, mathematics and science frameworks will continue to use the previous approach

Government response

§ The interim pre-key stage standards have also been updated to reflect these changes § Updated frameworks in reading and mathematics at KS1 and science at KS1 and KS2 will be introduced from the 2018/19 academic year onwards § Supporting exemplification materials reflecting these changes have also been published § We will work with the sector to explore the use of comparative judgement § We will run a small-scale pilot of the peer-to-peer model of moderation this year

Rochford Review consultation

Parallel consultation

Inclusive assessment

§ The final report recommends: § Removing statutory requirement to use P scales to report attainment and progress of pupils with SEND § Interim pre-key stage standards made permanent and extended to include all pupils engaged in subject-specific learning § The consultation asked for views on: § Important information which may no longer be available if P scales were removed § If pre-key stage standards are clear and easy to understand § If they support and encourage progression onto statutory national curriculum tests for pupils who are able to do so

Government response

§ We will remove the requirement to assess pupils engaged in subject- specific learning using P scales from the 2018/19 academic year

• nwards

§ We will make the interim pre-key stage standards permanent and extend them to cover all pupils engaged in subject-specific learning from 2018/19 onwards § We will produce a suite of exemplification materials to support teachers making judgements using the pre-key stage standards

Assessment for pupils not engaged in subject-specific learning

§ The final report recommends: § Drawing on 4 areas of need in SEND Code of Practice, assessment focuses on cognition & learning § A statutory duty to assess against 7 aspects of engagement for cognition and learning § Schools decide own approach to make assessments appropriate for needs of pupils and curriculum followed § The consultation asked for views on: § If statutory assessment should focus on cognition and learning § Whether assessing against the 7 aspect of engagement is the right model

Government response

§ We agree that the statutory assessment of pupils not engaged in subject- specific learning should focus on the areas of cognition and learning § We will pilot the Review’s approach to assessing pupils not engaged in subject-specific learning in the 2017/18 academic year before taking any final decision on whether to implement this approach § If we did implement this model following the pilot the changes would take place from the 2019/20 academic year onwards § In the meantime schools should continue to assess these pupils using P scales

Reporting assessment data

§ Current statutory duty to submit P scale data to DfE § If P scales were made non-statutory, this duty would cease § The final report recommends: § Schools shouldn’t be required to submit data for pupils not yet engaged in subject-specific learning when assessing them against 7 engagement aspects of cognition & learning § The consultation asked for views on: § Whether respondents agreed with this proposal

Government response

§ We will determine what, if any, assessment data will be collected by the department following this year’s pilot of the review’s proposed approach to the assessment of pupils not engaged in subject-specific learning § Were we to implement this approach schools would have to report that these pupils had not demonstrated evidence at the lowest pre-key stage standard and that they were therefore being assessed against the 7 aswpects of engagement for cognition and learning

Timelines

Primary assessment consultation

2018 Key stage 1 assessments

Key stage 1 § Revised teacher assessment frameworks in English writing – more flexible approach § English grammar, punctuation and spelling will remain optional for the 2018 assessment cycle § GPS test materials only available as downloads from NCA tools at the beginning of the testing window § Test window from Tuesday 1 May to Thursday 31 May § Raw score to scaled score conversion tables available Friday 1 June

2018 Key stage 2 assessments

Key stage 2 § Revised teacher assessment frameworks in English writing – more flexible approach § Change to the test timetable – English grammar punctuation and spelling tests now

• n Monday – Reading test now on Tuesday of test week

§ Test window from Monday 14 May to Thursday 17 May § Return of results on Tuesday 10 July – at 7.30am not midnight § 2017/18 is the last year that schools will be required to report teacher assessment judgements in English reading and mathematics at the end of key stage 2 from the 2018 to 2019 academic year onwards.

2018 Science sampling

§ The biennial science sampling tests will take place in June 2018. § The tests will be administered in selected schools by external administrators. § STA will contact selected schools on Monday 23 April. § The tests will not be taken by whole cohorts. § A representative sample of approximately 9,500 pupils will be randomly selected, based on 5 pupils from 1,900 schools. § Schools that are selected have a statutory obligation to participate. Important dates § Monday 23 April - Selected schools will be informed that their school has been selected to participate in the tests. § Monday 23 April to Tuesday 8 May - Selected schools will be contacted to arrange a suitable date for the administration of the tests. § Monday 4 June to Friday 15 June - Science sampling test period.

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Questions and reflections

Tom.treadwell@education.gov.uk https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/standar ds-and-testing-agency