Courtessy of an article by
Lauren Higgs, Children & Young People Now 23 July 2008
Government refuses call to overhaul testing in schools
Ofsted and the government will not consider reform of testing in schools, despite recommendations from a cross-party group of MPs.
In May, a Children, Schools and Families Select Committee report urged the government to scrap so-called “high-stakes” assessment in favour of a less target-driven approach.However, the government and Ofsted’s official response, published yesterday (21 July), does not include the report’s key proposals, said committee chairman and Labour MP Barry Sheerman.
He told CYP Now: “As usual, the government’s immediate response has been rather disappointing. The government still has its head in the sand and has refused to bite on the core bits of our report.” Sheerman said Ofsted has overwhelming evidence that the existing assessment system does encourage teachers to “teach for the test”, which is detrimental to the long-term education of children.
However, the government does not intend to change the fundamentals of the current system.
Follow link for details
www.cypnow.co.uk/doc.
School’s out so tell me what you think about this or any other related testing topic
Did you get your SATs on time?
was it proerly marked?
Do we need SATs?
Norwich Evening News – Schools’ anger at Sats debacle- 18/07/2008
An “appalling” picture emerged yesterday of how deep the Sats testing shambles is affecting Norfolk and Suffolk with more than three-quarters of schools still waiting for correct result
see also BBC commentary
1 response so far ↓
Peter Nuttall // 15 September, 2008 at 9:42 am |
‘Not everything that matters can be measured, and not everything that is measured matters’ I think the time is ripe for a coordinated national campaign against SATs. The marking debacle has highlighted how poorly managed the programme is, but of course the great crime is its detriment to actual education, and the erosion of the role of teachers (I’m not one by the way, but I do think they are best placed to make assessments).
There must be better ways of managing the performance of teachers and schools, other than needlessly distressing children and impoverishing their education.