Guest post: Primary School Reform: The Assessment of Learning

The education of young children in their primary schools has been hit hard in recent years. The political insistence on external testing has diminished professionalism as teachers have been reduced to the status of technicians tasked with the coaching for tests. Every year a large number turn away from their work in schools, disillusioned by the lack of freedom to use their individual skills.

The government's control of the education system is total. Primary education is seen as preparation for secondary schools in terms of literacy and numeracy. The outcome has been a harmful narrowing of the curriculum. The arts, particularly music, have been sidelined and important subjects such as physical education, history and geography have been relegated to an all too likely one hour each week. The opportunities for children to develop their natural creativity are limited in too many schools. Even the process of learning and teaching has been adversely affected. Many schools,  threatened by sanctions based upon test results, have returned to old fashioned chalk and talk in the misguided hope that their scores might improve. Such improvement rarely extends to more than a few weeks beyond the test.

Radical reform is required. We have to seek alternative ways of assessing children's progress which will free the curriculum and help to stem the loss of so many teachers. Above all else, assessment must be in the children's interest and not, as at present, used by government as an instrument for the monitoring of school efficiency and the holding of schools to account. The dominance of external testing must be ended.

Politicians are attracted to testing because the results can be quantified. But the accuracy implied by a number is false: research has shown that scores are not consistent and are seriously affected by personal circumstances. Human beings are complex creatures and the testing system presumes far more accuracy than is merited. Testing is very far from being an accurate way of assessing progress.

In seeking enlightened alternatives to external testing we should turn to the parent and teacher partnership. Here are adults who are jointly concerned with children's upbringing and who spend much time in close contact with them. They have unrivalled access to the evidence of children's growth in understanding and skills in both home and school. No-one and no system is better placed to appraise progress which is formative of new learning rather than the flawed summative measure provided by external testing. We must remind those who point to research which indicates that teacher assessment is inaccurate that the alleged inaccuracy stems from the validation of such assessments through comparison with examination results. Assessment is for  children and not for forecasting the results of testing. 

The teacher in primary school is immensely privileged by contact with the individual child for the majority of each day. This is an arena which facilitates sound assessment. All the interactions between adult and the child which we summarise as teaching inevitably embrace the continuous assessment by the teacher of the pupil's level of understanding and growing skill. The child's work is powerful evidence of their progress and the dialogue with the teacher always reveals additional evidence. Assessment is implicit in the act of teaching. 

Testing, internal to the school, diagnostic in character and standardised for age would constitute a source of further evidence.  Such testing would be a weapon in the teachers professional armoury, and integrated with teaching, would never become a pre-eminent part of education.

The parent's role in primary education has developed over recent years despite a political intention that the parent should be cast as a consumer of an educational product.  Research and sound practice show that parents are, in fact, teachers who have a significant and guiding influence on children's upbringing. They should be partners in education and should be closely involved in the assessment of progress. The ending of external testing will remove much of the tension which at present inhibits the partnership and we can look forward with optimism to a future which is effective in acknowledging the different but complementary roles of teachers and parents.

Change on the scale set out above is unlikely to be achieved quickly. Attitudes and assumptions engrained by years of harmful practice must be overturned before action can be taken. We should begin with an intensive programme of professional development coupled with the restoration of the universities' independence in teacher training. No longer should teachers be described as the blob by politicians and trust in professional competence should be restored. Teachers' centres should be re-established and these can be the focus for an emphasis upon child development which, over recent years, has had to give way to objectives more related to the supposed needs of adult society. The link between research and practice must be restored and the direction of primary education should be informed by children and their growth rather than political considerations. 

John Coe

References

Alexander R.J.  (Ed.)    Children, Their World,  Their Education: Final Report and Recommendations.   Routledge,  London 2010.

Black P.J. and William D.  Assessment and Classroom Learning.     Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy and Practice 5(1) 7- 73   1998.

Harlen W. (Ed.)   Assessment of Learning.   Sage Publications,  London 2007.

Johnston J.  Parents Facilitating Educational Development in the Primary Child: Current Practice and Future Development.  Nottingham Trent University. Paper presented at BERA  1996.