Voice welcomes Bew Review

Thursday, 23 June 2011 3:23 PM

 Voice welcomes Bew Review

 Voice: the union for education professionals has broadly welcomed the Review of Key Stage 2 testing, assessment and accountability published today (23 June 2011).

General Secretary Philip Parkin said: “Voice has been calling for fewer tests and greater use of teacher assessment so we welcome the Review’s conclusion ‘that more trust should be placed in teachers, with a greater weight given to their assessment of pupils’.

“The current system of test-based ‘accountability’ is for the benefit of the government, rather than for providing information for parents and taxpayers, and teachers’ professional judgement would provide a better and more cost-effective measure of pupils’ progress.

“The recommendation that teacher assessment judgements should be submitted before test results are announced to give them more ‘weight’ seems a sensible measure.

“We would also welcome the use of three-year rolling averages because they are a fair way of aggregating what might otherwise be a spiky profile caused by year-to-year differences in cohorts.

“However, we are disappointed by the recommendations that the external assessments in maths and reading should be retained. If teachers are to be trusted more in other areas, why not in maths and reading?

“We are also concerned about the proposed ‘spelling, grammar, punctuation and vocabulary test’.

“A significant investment would be needed to construct and pilot such a test and to determine its validity and reliability. The best judges of children’s abilities in these areas are their teachers, who are assessing their writing on a regular basis.

“I am not sure that such a test would have any real benefits or be of any diagnostic value. The results would be uninformative as they would simply confirm the results of teachers’ own assessments. They would not give information on individual pupils’ writing ability.”


Contacts: Voice Press Office (pressoffice@voicetheunion.org.uk) on 01332 372337 or 0794 871 0413 or General Secretary Philip Parkin (philipparkin@voicetheunion.org.uk) on 01332 372 337 or 077 259 601 32.
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Voice: the union for education professionals
2 St James' Court
Friar Gate
Derby DE1 1BT

Tel : 01332 372337 web : www.voicetheunion.org.uk

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