Single Level Testing

Upon getting to grips with curriculum change, one of the first questions that immediately follows is “What about assessment?”. With the pervading culture of reporting headline external assessment results many teachers are torn between a perceived need to keep a tight ship with regard to performance in exams and unshackling teachers and reinvigorating pupils.

Whilst I strongly believe that the two are not mutually exclusive and happily nail my colours to the mast in favour of creative approaches that encompass all learners being a sensible route to success in external assessments, I do have some sympathies with the culture of fear that league tables and nationally reported results can lead to in some schools. Once again, the subject of assessment is one of the topics in education that warrants a blog all of its own and I would welcome all comments on the matter. I would say however, that school leaders should aim to adopt practices in monitoring and assessing internally through a range of activities that do everything possible to remove the stifling implications of one-shot external assessment-focused departments. Creativity is at the heart of successful schools and successful people – be them pupils or teachers!

An evolution, at KS3 at least, is underway though. Single level testing is currently being piloted in 10 LAs across the country. The outcomes and discussion around the pilot will be presented on the NAA website. They have set up an area especially for SLT which, at the moment, is a little barren although, if you store it in your own IE bookmarks, Del.icio.us, etc I am sure it will become an increasingly useful source of information over the coming months. (Click either image to go there)