Assessment Matters
Assessment processes are integral to learning and teaching. This part of the site focuses on aspects of curriculum and pedagogy where assessment has a key role to play or that have implications for assessment practice, and includes links to relevant reports, research articles and sites.
'Education has lost one of its great champions – a pioneer of the concept of "value-added" statistics'
TES - One leading educationist pays tribute to Professor Carol Taylor Fitz-Gibbon, who helped to create a monitoring system enabling schools to take a more informed and sophisticated view of data for the good of their pupils....
Read moreNUT - The Mismeasurement of Learning: How tests are damaging children and primary education....
Read more'Ofsted can't take all the blame for draconian marking policies – small-minded school leaders are also at fault’
TES - The inspectorate has repeatedly said that is not looking for detailed marking when judging schools – so why are some teachers still drowning under the weight of it?...
Read moreInspectors are still looking for detailed marking despite pleas not to, Ofsted admits
TES - Ofsted is "concerned" that its inspectors are still looking for detailed marking when judging schools – despite pleas for them to steer away from the practice....
Read moreGOV.UK - School Standards Minister Nick Gibb addresses the ResearchED national conference....
Read moreTESS - Standardised assessments must be brought in, despite teachers’ qualms, John Swinney tells EIS conference. The Scotsman - John Swinney tells teachers not to fear Scots test shake-up....
Read moreTES News - New research suggests that at least 194,000 pupils could be ill-prepared for the classroom in September. Large proportions of children starting school are not ready for the classroom, according to primary school leaders....
Read moreGOV.UK - Attainment of pupils at the end of key stage 2 and key stage 4, for the academic year 2013 to 2014, by levels of absence....
Read moreKey stage 2: English grammar, punctuation and spelling test framework (revised March 2016)
GOV.UK - Guidance for test developers on the purpose, format, content, cognitive demand and specification for the key stage 2 English grammar, punctuation and spelling test (revised March 2016)....
Read moreKey stage 1: English grammar, punctuation and spelling test framework (revised March 2016)
GOV.UK - Guidance for test developers on the purpose, format, content, cognitive demand and specification for the key stage 1 English grammar, punctuation and spelling test (revised March 2016)....
Read moreGOV.UK - Report about eliminating unnecessary workload for teachers when managing data, including principles and recommendations. GOV.UK - Letters from the teacher workload review groups and Nicky Morgan....
Read moreGOV.UK - Report about eliminating unnecessary workload for teachers regarding lesson planning, including principles and recommendations. GOV.UK - Letters from the teacher workload review groups and Nicky Morgan....
Read moreGOV.UK - Report about eliminating unnecessary workload for teachers regarding marking, including principles and recommendations. GOV.UK - Letters from the teacher workload review groups and Nicky Morgan....
Read moreEngland’s punitive assessment and accountability regimes stifle any benefits of academy freedom
TES News - Academies' autonomy means very little if the EBac forces you to drop the subjects that will suit your pupils best, or national tests leave you chronically uncertain about your future, writes a director of the Royal Society of...
Read moreWhy do we allow a limited suite of qualifications to dominate the way we think about education?
TES News - In education, there are three elemental components – curriculum, pedagogy and assessment; in other words, the ‘what’, the ‘how’ and the ‘whether’ of teaching and learning. The product of these components can create the conditions for powerful learning;...
Read moreBBC News Education - Children with poor language skills at age five are significantly more likely to struggle with maths at age 11, a study for Save the Children suggests....
Read moreEducation Datalab - London schools do well, but not necessarily better than all other regions. TES News - Schools in the North East top rankings to challenge claims of a national divide....
Read moreBBC News Education - Where children grow up in England is more likely to determine success or failure at school than in previous generations, a study suggests. The Social Market Foundation has examined test results of cohorts born in 1970...
Read moreTES News - UK schools are among the worst in the developed world for “teaching to the test”, a new analysis of the effect of income inequality on education suggests. Danny Dorling - UK among world’s worst for teaching to the test....
Read moreExams are 'disempowering' students and ignoring their abilities, international experts warn
TES News - Exams too often “disempower” learners by failing to give them the chance to demonstrate their full range of knowledge and skills, according to a group of leading academics and policy advisers from around the world....
Read moreGOV.UK - Report looking at whether pre-school and early home learning helps students gain more A levels. BBC News Education - Preschools turn children on to learning, says study....
Read moreGOV.UK - The Ofsted Annual Report sets out the evidence and findings on the quality of schools and the further education and skills sector. GOV.UK - A nation divided: Her Majesty's Chief Inspector Sir Michael Wilshaw's speech to launch Ofsted's 2014/15 annual report...
Read more'We should look to the French when it comes to understanding Dweck's growth mindset'
TES - Growth mindsets have caught on in a big way. Teachers have mapped and adapted their own practices to Carol Dweck’s framework; schools have made it their mantra. Pendulums, though, have a propensity to swing back....
Read moreBBC News Education - Migrants 'do not lower school results'. OECD - Can schools help to integrate immigrants?...
Read moreThe Independent - Grammar schools do not boost social mobility and a new “tutor-proof” test has done nothing to stop children from wealthier backgrounds being coached to win places at selective schools, according to a new report. Local, Equal, Excellent - Who...
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