Investigating the reliability of the Key Stage 2 test results for assessing individual pupil achievement and progress in England

Abstract

'Personalised learning' and the value of national assessment data in achieving it have been identified by the UK Secretary of State for Education and Skills as essential for raising educational standards. Employing multilevel analysis, this paper compares children's end of primary school (Key Stage 2) test scores with those they achieved in comparable test papers taken in each term of their first year of secondary school. The paper questions the reliability of national assessment data in respect of the performance of individual children, their predictive validity and thus their value in contributing to the provision of 'personalised learning'.

SATs, sets and allegations of bias: The allocation of 11‐year‐old students to mathematics sets in some English schools in 2015. A response to Connolly et al., 2019

“…The body responsible for National Curriculum tests advises against over‐confidence in SAT scores as a basis for accurate predictions of individual future performance (OfQual, 2013c). Research confirms this (Benton & Sutch, 2014; Doyle & Ray, 2005; Moody, 2010; Newton, 2009; Smith, 2013; Thomson, 2019; Treadaway, 2019). None of this is surprising given that national assessments had been primarily designed to assess schools, not students (Bew, 2011).…”

Book Reviews

“…The transition from primary to secondary school is an oft-researched area in the UK and in recent times there has been a steady flow of books (Nicholls and Gardner, 1999;Hargreaves and Galton, 2002), reports (Galton, et al, 1999;Arnold, 2002;Galton, et al, 2003) and journal articles (Noyes, 2004;Doyle and Godfrey, 2005) -though as Boyd points out early on, there is still little research on the longer term impact of transfer in S3 beyond. Traversing over some of the well-known problems such as secondary teachers' 'fresh start' approach, Boyd's emphasis is on the need for a pedagogy, appropriate teacher training, CPD and even school buildings that give centre stage to children's learning and provide the conditions for continuity and progression from P6 to S2.…”

Children's perceptions of primary science assessment in England and Wales

“…On the positive side, the introduction of science SATs was said to have raised the profile of primary science in schools (POST, ), motivate some children, reduce workload on teachers and generate consistent summative judgements of pupils’ attainment levels in science (Collins et al ., ). Negative reported effects were that preparation for SATs tests can distort the learning and teaching of science (see Harlen, ; House of Commons, ; ASE, ), turn children off science (Ofsted, ; (ASE), ; Murphy & Beggs, ) and that science SATs are unreliable (Doyle & Godfrey, ; Schagen & Kerr, ) and do not provide an accurate measure of pupils’ science ability (see Wiliam, ; Black & Wiliam, ; Collins et al ., ). Strand () argued that a combination of KS2 test scores and the cognitive abilities test (CAT) scores taken at age 11 gave the best prediction of outcomes at the end of KS3 (age 14).…”