Testing in Schools

What is Testing in Schools?

School pupils in the UK are subjected to extensive testing throughout their school careers under the terms of the National Curriculum.

Introduced under the Education Reform Act 1988, the National Curriculum was aimed at ensuring that all pupils were following a sufficiently broad and balanced educational programme, and that attainment was carefully monitored in order to ensure improvements.

Under the National Curriculum, pupils undergo four sets of national tests, corresponding to attainment targets under four "Key Stages". Testing against Key Stage 1 targets takes place at age 7; testing against KS2 targets take place at 11; testing against KS3 targets takes place at age 14; and testing against KS4 targets, that is, GCSE or equivalent external examinations, takes place at age 16, the end of compulsory secondary education. Originally known as "SATs" (Standard Assessment Tasks), since 1991 the tests have been formally called "National Curriculum Tests".

A series of "Levels" of attainment are set out within each Key Stage. KS1 comprises testing at Levels 1 to 3 in English and Mathematics. KS2 comprises English, Mathematics and Science testing at Levels 3 to 5 (the three "core subjects" under the National Curriculum). KS3 comprises English testing at Levels 4 to 7, Mathematics testing at Levels 3 to 8 and Science testing at Levels 3 to 7. Pupils' attainment is rated at a particular Level for each test depending on their mark score, and around 600,000 children in each age range are assessed each year.

Maintaining and developing the National Curriculum, and its attendant assessments, tests and examinations, are the responsibilities of the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority. Schools and teachers themselves administer and mark the tests, and compile and register the results.

Schools' results for KS2 and KS4 tests are published each year, in the form of school "league tables", which rank school performance locally and nationally.

Background

Testing in schools has a long history, but is was in the late 1980s that testing as a means of improving attainment moved to the centre stage of educational policy, hand-in-hand with the rise of school inspections. The two remain to this day at the centre of government attempts to ensure consistency and high standards in educational provision.

The National Curriculum and its testing regimes were thoroughly revised in 1995 and 2000, but across this period multiple and cumulative changes were introduced.

When Labour came to power in 1997, the Government adopted the accountability and testing regime put in place by the Conservatives, and indeed went further with it, introducing additional requirements alongside, and in some instances at the expense of, the National Curriculum - such as the "Literacy Hour" of the National Literacy Strategy, and the National Numeracy Strategy - although these have since been incorporated into the National Curriculum proper.

In 1997, moreover, the Government set a target for 2002 of 80 per cent of 11-year-olds achieving Level 4 or above in the KS2 tests, a step which would result in the then Education Secretary Estelle Morris resigning due to the target's not being met.

Controversies

Much of the controversy that surrounded the introduction of the National Curriculum related to the rigour and the validity of the testing regime. While few now argue against a National Curriculum as such, testing remains a central dispute in education.

The National Curriculum was introduced in response to concerns that LEA control of the curriculum and the low expectations of teachers were resulting in declining educational standards.

It is beyond question that, against the indicators measured, the whole apparatus of educational monitoring - which includes the National Curriculum, testing, the work of Ofsted and other interventions - has caused performance to improve since the late 1980s. Whether the indicators the regime employs are correct or meaningful is, however, disputed.

Opponents of the testing regime argue that there is too much testing in schools: with external tests required at 7, 11, 14 and 16, much of schooling becomes an exercise in preparing for tests, rather than the wider educational experience they contend it should be.

Indeed, it has been shown in multiple surveys that preparation for the end of Key Stage tests - and other Government initiatives such as the Literacy Hour - have eaten into the time available for the National Curriculum "foundation" subjects (history, geography, technology, languages, art, music and physical education). As such, opponents allege that the National Curriculum itself has had the perverse effect of narrowing the curriculum.

Educationalists have expressed concern about the standards set in the tests, which they claim are not based on empirical evidence about children's attainment levels, but on assumptions about what children should be able to do at certain ages. Some educational psychologists and teachers also claim that the pressure put on children by parents in relation to the tests is damaging to their welfare. In particular, many argue that 7 year olds are too young for formal testing.

Nonetheless, the political significance of testing in schools frequently relates less to the children themselves than to schools and teachers. The school league tables which test results are used to compile are deeply unpopular in many quarters. League tables were intended to show parents how schools are performing: it was assumed that parental pressure on poorly performing schools would push standards up.

While league tables are popular with many parents, and "parent power" has indeed had some of the desired effects, pressure also comes from those parents who are able to pushing to get their children into "good" schools. Those parents are usually middle class, and the result can be that poorly performing schools are "ghettoised" and pushed into spirals of decline as they are left with the most challenging pupils and the stigma of "failure" - something which successive Governments have actually been accused of encouraging.

The league tables have been revised in recent years, to include "value-added" indicators, taking account of prevailing local socio-economic circumstances, but the methodology is fairly new and results are inconclusive. Educational egalitarians, however, oppose league tables in principle, as improperly promoting the idea that schools are in competition with one another. The Scottish Executive announced in late 2003 that it would abolish league tables altogether, promising parents a more "meaningful" barometer of performance.

Tests are also deeply unpopular with many teachers. 2003 saw efforts by the NUT union to boycott 2004's tests outright almost come to fruition - a ballot saw 86 per cent of members in favour, but the action did not go ahead due to legal technicalities. On top of the reasons outlined above, many teachers object strongly to the additional workload that the testing regime imposes upon them, the prescriptive nature of preparations and the standards measured, and the disruption to the educational programme that carrying them out entails.

In May 2003, Education Secretary Charles Clarke promised reform of the testing regime, with a downgrading of the importance of the formal tests themselves and greater emphasis given to teachers' assessments of pupils.

Statistics

The first nine years of compulsory education will see every child tested three times, sitting eight sets of tests. For most children, this will involve taking 23 separate papers

Research conducted for the NUT found that primary school teachers are spending the equivalent of 4.6 hours per week preparing for National Curriculum Tests

Statistic 1: (Source: Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, 2004); Statistic 2: (Source: Nat