Primary schools achievements at age 11 continued to improved in
2005/06, but the results show that the rate of progress has slowed
with schools now having to work harder for the smallest of gains.
Results in the national curriculum maths test for 11-year-olds
edged up by just 1%, with a record 76% achieving level 4, the expected
standard necessary to have a chance of doing well at secondary school.
English results were static, with 70% achieving level 4, the same
as 2005/06.
Ministers had set a target for 2006 of 85% reaching level 4 in
English and Maths, but long ago abandoned and expectation that it
would be met.
It seems that the early improvements that resulted from the literacy
and numeracy strategies, introduced by Labour after the 1997 election,
have trailed off and schools are now struggling to bring the bottom
fifth of pupils up to the standard necessary to equip them for the
demands of secondary school.
(The Times, 7 December 2006)
In April 2006, one primary school in a deprived area of Northampton
gained press coverage for funding its own holiday club with the
focus on helping pupils revise for national tests. Read the article
online at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/4875772.stm.
Just over half of five-year-olds have failed to reach the Government's
targets for what children should know, understand and be able to do
by the end of their first year in primary school.
Figures published for the first time since the assessment of their
performance was made compulsory in 2002 showed that 52% had not reached
their 'early learning goals'.
The Department for Education said that meant that they had "failed
to achieve a good level of development" between the ages of three
and five and this raised questions about children's "future potential
to enjoy and achieve".
The targets, which were set in a spending review White Paper published
in 2004, require five-year-olds to score at least six out of nine
in each of seven areas covering language and literacy and personal,
social and emotional development. To pass, a child has to show that
he or she is attentive in class, takes account of what others say,
is developing a respect for others' cultures and beliefs, is interested
in past events, can link letters and sounds in simple words, guess
at the meaning of simple sentences and is able to write a letter to
Father Christmas.
Although the great majority of the 550,000 five-year-olds in England
could do some of those things, only 48% could do all of them and girls
outstripped boys in every one of them - by 17% in the case of writing.
Girls did best in the measures of personal, social and emotional development,
while boys did worst in language and literacy.
A breakdown of the figures by local authority underlined the early
effects of social class, with children in disadvantaged areas scoring
poorly across the board.
The Treasury said that it had set a public service agreement target
of 50% of five-year-olds reaching a good level of development by 2008.
It also wanted to see a reduction in the unequal level of development
achieved by children in the most disadvantaged 20% areas across the
country.
(Telegraph, 17 February 2006)
An interesting TES article considering the benefit of national tests
to children: www.tes.co.uk/search/story/?story_id=2199602
(TES, 24 February 2006)
Pupils at more then half of Welsh primaries have taken national
curriculum tests for 11-year-olds, even though they were optional
for the first time. A total of 772 Welsh primaries have registered
to have the tests externally marked, more schools are expected to
administer and mark the tests internally. A Department for Education
and Skills spokeswoman said the statistics supported its view on
the importance of testing.
But Simon Gibbons, from the National Association for the Teaching
of English, said he did not think the Welsh schools' decision undermined
the case against the tests: "Schools use then because there
isn't an agreed alternative and they are under the impression that
parents think SATs are a measure of a school's achievement."
(TES, 13 May 2005)
Deprived primary schools in the inner cities celebrated rises of up
to 7 percentage points in national curriculum test results for 11-year-olds
in maths and English. In English, the percentage reaching the required
standard was up by 2 points to 77 per cent. Inner-city schools had
the biggest improvements, with Hartlepool leading the way with a 7
point rise in both maths and English. Hackney improved its English
results by 7 points and maths by 6 points. Ministers are optimistic
that improvements will continue and are increasing the targeted aid
to 850 schools next year.
(Independent, 25 August 2004)
The existing regime of national tests in primaries will make way
for teacher assessment, following a pilot in thousands of schools
in summer 2004. The education minister announced said: "The
trials have shown that teacher assessment is robust and we have
confidence in the profession."
Under the changes, seven-year-olds will still be expected to complete
the national tests in English and maths. However, teachers can decide
when and how to administer them and the results will no longer be
published separately from an overall teacher assessment of the pupils'
progress. Results by local authority will continue to be published
and parents will be entitled to see their child's results. "In
practice it will mean more flexibility for the schools and for the
teacher. We are not abolishing the tests - they will continue to
be the tools that teachers use for assessing their pupils' progress."
Steve Sinnott, general secretary of the National Union of Teachers,
said: "Trusting teachers to provide results from their assessments
rather than requiring them to rely on tests is a major step forward.
The logic must be for the Government to draw on the experience of
Wales and Scotland and move towards further reform of end-of-key-stage
testing and assessment in all schools."
(TES, 17 September 2004)
Independent external tests of Primary 1 pupils have won the support
of heads and class teachers despite the suspicions that baseline
assessment is yet another devious way to get at staff.
Teachers remain wary about the possible uses of PIPS (performance
indicators in primary schools) tests which are externally set and
marked by staff at Durham University. One in three Scottish local
authorities now uses the PIPS value-added system to check pupil
progress and monitor wider performance.
A study by Mike Cowie of Aberdeen University of heads and class
teachers in four authorities - Aberdeen, Midlothian, Moray and Orkney
- found that most primary schools welcome the data as part of professional
monitoring, but heads are keener than front-line staff.
(TESS, 24 October 2003)
David Bell, the Chief inspector is privately pressing the Government
to abandon its targets for primary schools next year. He and other
senior figures from the Office for Standards in Education have warned
ministers that the targets are counter productive and unattainable.
Primary heads' anger at the Government's insistence that 85% of
11-year-olds should reach the expected level in English and maths
by 2004 is growing.
A senior Ofsted source said officials had tried to persuade the
Department for Education and Skills to drop the targets, but the
concerns had been shrugged off. "The one thing that distresses
me is that ministers are still set on the national targets for 2004,"
he said. "It defies common sense." He said the targets
were clearly unattainable, and that pressuring schools to meet them
could reduce the quality of education for children and narrow the
curriculum.
(TES, 21 February 2003)
More than 6,000 of the lowest performing seven-year-olds will have
to catch up with their classmates if the Government is to meet its
2004 target in English. Headteachers and education experts say the
pressure is unrealistic and damaging and have urged education ministers
to revise the targets.
The Government insists that 85% of 11-year-olds can reach level
4 in English by 2004, despite failing to reach the 2002 target of
80% by 5%.
(TES, 11 October 2002)
Education Minister Charles Clarke announcement in May 2003 that
the Government would drop the primary targets for 2004 and ease
pressure on seven year-olds surprised and delighted teachers. He
told a conference of heads, at which he was launching Excellence
and Enjoyment: A strategy for primary schools, that he was responding
to their complaints about excessive pressure from top-down targets.
The Government will retain a commitment of 85% of 11-year-olds
reaching level 4 in English and maths but, instead of 2004, this
is to be reached "as soon as possible" and schools will
take control of the target-setting process.
Schools will be told to set their own targets, based on their children's
abilities. But they have been warned that each age group is expected
to make more progress than the one before. Objectives for education
authorities will be based on their schools' targets.
Main points of Excellence and Enjoyment:
- Schools will set their own targets first, which will then feed
into LEA targets
- National target of 85% of 11-year-olds reaching level 4 kept
as an aspiration to be met "as soon as possible", probably
2006
- Trial of merging KS1 tests and teacher assessment
- Consultation on changing league tables
- Specialist training in subjects beside English and maths
- Support for transition into primary and on to secondary
- Partnership with parents to be extended
- Lessons in good behaviour
Excellence and Enjoyment is available from DfES Publications
on 0845 60 222 60, ref: DfES/0377/2003.
(TES, 23 May 2003)
A TES poll of over a 1000 teachers revealed an overwhelming majority
in favour of scrapping tests for seven-year-olds and eleven-year-olds.
Wales is in the process of abolishing key stage 1 tests, while
Northern Ireland is proposing to replace key stage assessments with
annual reports. Scotland tests pupils when their teachers judge
them to be ready but has no league tables.
However, the poll revealed support in primary schools for the national
literacy and numeracy strategies. Roughly three-quarters of those
surveyed thought they had helped to improve standards.
(TES, 19 April 2002)
The number of primary schools complaining of bad marking in English
tests has nearly doubled. More than 3,000 11-year-olds had their
results upgraded by a level after their 2001 national test scripts
were remarked.
The surge in appeals at key stage 2 reflects schools' concerns
about the quality of marking in tests that are increasingly used
as the yardstick of pupil, teacher and school performance. In 2001
2,125 schools complained about marking errors compared with 1,343
in 2000.
In all three key stages overall, more than 15,000 pupils' results
were upgraded by a level. The figures add credence to a claim by
assessment expert Dylan Wiliam of Kings College, London University,
that the proportion of students awarded a higher or lower level
than they should be is at least 30% at KS2 and 3.
About 600,000 pupils take the test at each key stage.
(TES, 15 February 2002)
Reading tests for 11-year-olds have become easier in the past two
years and rising scores could be disguising a fall in standards,
according to research by Mary Hilton, a senior lecturer at Homerton
College, Cambridge. Her research shows the papers have radically
changed between 1998 and 2000.
The number of questions where children are simply asked to retrieve
information from the text has increased, while the number requiring
pupils to use what the researchers call higher-order reading skills
such as inference and deduction has markedly decreased.
Ms Hilton commented: "These changes have made the reading tests
progressively easier. There could well be a current fall in standards
as the national literacy approach to the teaching of English in
primary schools is bolstered by such dubious test reliability."
Research by the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority has shown
that nearly 90% of British 10-year-olds can answer questions where
the answer can be found in the text, but find higher-order tasks
- such as responding to the author's use of imagery - far more difficult.
The Homerton study says there were enough easy questions in the
2000 test for pupils to reach the standard, level 4, without having
to demonstrate any powers of inference or deduction whatsoever.
A spokesman for the QCA said Ms Hilton's assumptions were false.
"This research assumes that inference questions are always more
difficult than questions about textual evidence. This is patently
wrong."
The Rose inquiry in 1999, set up in response to earlier allegations
that the tests were becoming easier, concluded that the tests were
just as hard as in previous years.
(TES 6 April , 2001)
Around 16,000 of England's 19,000 primary schools have gained ground
in their test scores over the last four years, with the 2000 results
showing more progress. Almost three-quarters of pupils reached the
expected standards in the core subjects of English, maths and science.
In English, 75% achieved level four, up 4% on last year. The previous
year's rise was 5%.
Significantly, rates of improvement are higher in disadvantaged
areas. Results in the first 25 education action zones have risen
more than the national results.
The Government is committed to publishing tables that reflect the
different intakes of schools. The first "value-added" tables, that
measure the results of 11-year-olds against the scores they gained
at seven, are likely to be trialled in 2002, with full tables published
the following year. However, academics are concerned that the data
are not yet sufficiently accurate to make value-added comparisons.
(TES, 8 December 2000)
About 70,000 more children than in 1998 transferred to secondary
school having reached their target level in English. Prime Minister
Tony Blair noted in his speech to new headteachers that the lowest
performing area now produces better results in mathematics and English
than the average authority did four years ago.
(The Times, 7 December 2000)
Individual primary school results are not published in Scotland,
Wales or Northern Ireland.
New research suggests that the higher English and maths scores
are down to genuine higher standards and not lax marking or easier
papers. Work carried out by the National Foundation for Educational
Research and Dr Mike Treadaway of the Fischer Family Trust, has
found that the level of difficulty has remained consistent over
the past four years.
(TES, 22 September 2000)
The number of schools with improved results has increased substantially
with 65% of primary schools in England getting higher scores in
English than last year. The government intends to spend £170
million on literacy and numeracy next year including £48m
on booster classes to give pupils out-of-hours help for the tests.
A number of schools said they found the booster classes for Year
6 particularly effective.
(TES, 10 December 1999)
Councils with pupils from similar social backgrounds are producing
widely different scores at GCSE according to an analysis by the
TES of exam league tables. This shows huge variations in education
authorities with apparently similar levels of deprivation. The difference
in some cases amounts to the equivalent of two top-grade GCSEs for
each pupil.
(TES, 3 December 1999)
Efforts to boost educational standards in Britain's poorest regions
are being hampered by high pupil turnover, a government-funded study
concludes.
One in seven councils told researchers that they had schools where
a third of pupils left and were replaced in a single year while
one, unidentified school, lost more than 40 % of its pupils each
year.
A fifth of local education authorities believe the constant movement
of pupils damaged the work of one or more of their schools.
The interim findings of the study, jointly funded by the Department
for Education and Employment and the Nuffield Foundation, are likely
to increase pressure on the Government to allow education funding
to reflect pupil mobility.
At present, central government grants to councils take into account
how many pupils are eligible for free school meals and the numbers
using ethnic minority support services in schools, but not pupil
turnover.
Pupil mobility can also have a major impact on league table places.
Earlier this year, the London Borough of Hackney suggested its high
turnover of primary-aged pupils could have cost it 34 places in
the table of local authority results. A study by its officers
showed that settled pupils who stay at the same school from Reception
to Year 6 did significantly better than the borough average.
In September, the Government launched a scheme to track individual
pupils' achievement from school to school, using identity numbers
and computer records.
(TES, 29 October 1999)
Nick Tate, the Chief Executive of the Qualifications and Curriculum
Authority, argues that performance tables for primary schools and
the literacy and numeracy strategies introduced by ministers to
guide teachers are boosting achievement.
He points out there is still some way to go particularly in improving
the performance of boys and in raising writing standards. Dr Tate
says the structure of the tests must remain unchanged until 2002
because of the Government's targets but that after that there may
be a need to redesign the tests. If a large number of pupils start
reaching Level 5 (Level 4 is currently the expected level of achievement
for 11-year-olds) they might introduce separate tests to assess
children at Levels 2, 3 and 4 and another test for the majority
of pupils to assess Levels 5, 6 and 7.
Dr Tate finds the lack of improvement in the SAT's for 14-year
olds disturbing and accuses secondary schools of not taking them
seriously. He believes a literacy strategy for 14-year-olds should
now be on the agenda.
(Independent, 16 September 1999)
11-year-olds SAT's result in England have increased by a further
4% in English bringing the total up to 75% of pupils reaching the
expected standard (Level 4). This means the Government is on target
for its 2002 goal of 80%. The previous year's increase was 6%. Progress
was greatest in reading with the percentage of children reaching
Level 4 up by 5% to 83%, and in writing up 1% to 55%.
More ambitious goals for raising literacy standards are yet to be
announced but it is thought that higher targets will feature in
Labour's manifesto for the next general election. A spokesman for
DfEE said that ministers will announce new targets for 11-year-olds
in literacy and numeracy "in due course". It has also been suggested
that schools and teacher unions will not be consulted about the
new targets before they are set. John Bangs, assistant general
secretary of the National Union of Teachers said, "Schools are not
likely to be willing to work to targets they do not own or they
have not been consulted about".
(TES, 28 July 2000) | 80px.gif)
