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MAJOR REFORMS TO SCHOOL ACCOUNTABILITY INCLUDING AN END TO COMPULSORY NATIONAL TESTS FOR FOURTEEN YEAR OLDS.
MORE SUPPORT IN YEAR 7 TO HELP CHILDREN MAKE THE JUMP TO SECONDARY SCHOOL.
ED BALLS ANNOUNCES NEW ‘SCHOOL REPORT CARDS’
14 October 2008Schools Secretary Ed Balls announced today that the Government plans to introduce a new School Report Card, to give parents a new, simpler and more comprehensive way of understanding schools’ performance and achievements. The new School Report Cards are part of wider changes to strengthen schools’ accountability to parents and the public, raise school standards, and reform pupil testing and assessment. The Government will set out detailed proposals on report cards for consultation with schools, parents and the public by the end of this year, leading to a White Paper in spring 2009.Ed Balls said that externally marked Key Stage 2 tests were critically important and would continue as the key source of information for parents and the public about standards in primary schools – with ‘single level’ tests remaining a potential alternative for tests at age 11 in the future. He announced that he was ending schools’ requirement to run national tests for 14 year olds, with immediate effect. The current compulsory national tests at the end of Key Stage 3 will be replaced by improved classroom assessment by teachers and frequent reporting to parents in years 7, 8 and 9, with a stronger focus on one-to-one tuition and catch up support for children in the first years of secondary school. A new expert group, made up of headteachers and education professionals, will advise on the details of the new arrangements. The group will also advise Government on the introduction of national-level sampling at Key Stage 3 so that the performance of the education system as a whole can still be monitored by the public, year on year. Ed Balls said: “These reforms will provide more regular and more comprehensive information to parents about their children’s progress, support heads and teachers to make sure that every child can succeed, and strengthen our ability to hold all schools to account, as well as the public’s ability to hold government to account. “Key Stage 2 tests are here to stay. They are essential to giving parents, teachers and the public the information they need about the progress of every primary age child and every primary school. “The final year of primary school is critical to prepare children for the step up to secondary school. Key Stage 2 tests are a robust, objective and consistent source of information for parents at a crucial transition point for their child, and a pupil’s performance at 11 in the core subjects reflects many years of learning at that school. “The early years of secondary school are critical for children’s achievement at school, and we know that some children fall behind at this age. It is vital that secondary schools identify 11 to 14 year olds who need help or one-to-one tuition to catch up - as well as those who can be stretched further.”The reforms include:• Compulsory national tests remain for 11 year olds at Key Stage 2; the Government will continue to pilot and evaluate new ‘single level’ tests as a potential alternative to tests at 11;
• Schools will prioritise Year 7 (age 11) pupils who are behind their peers for one-to-one tuition and other ‘catch-up’ support; the expert group is asked to advise on how best schools might formally assess, and report to parents, children’s progress in catching up during year 7;
• 14 year olds will no longer be required to sit Key Stage 3 tests, but will be assessed through ongoing teacher assessment throughout the key stage, with regular real-time reports to parents; teacher assessments at 14 will continue, as now, to be published at the national and local authority level;
• There will be a stronger focus on maintaining all pupils’ progress in the first years of secondary school, using Key Stage 2 test results and close tracking by teachers to spot and support children who are falling behind, or those who could achieve more;
• National-level sampling for Key Stage 3 will be developed so that standards at age 14 across the education system as a whole can be monitored;
• School Report Cards will bring together performance information in one place, and will help parents understand more clearly how well schools are supporting children’s progress and wellbeing. Alongside School Report Cards, the information currently published in achievement and attainment tables will continue to be available in an easily useable format. Ed Balls said that the new School Report Card would strengthen accountability to parents and local communities by making broader information about schools’ performance and achievements more readily available to parents in a simpler, easily understood format. In developing the new School Report Card, the Government will learn lessons from other countries which have introduced progress reports; for example, in New York City, an annual report card is published for each school, showing the school’s educational attainment and other information, and a single overall grade is given for each school, based on a weighted formula. Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector, Ofsted, Christine Gilbert, said:"Parents tell us they want greater clarity and better information about schools.
These changes support that. They have the potential for providing a clearer and sharper view of school performance and progress. These proposals must be designed to support the acceleration of improvement and we will continue to work with the DCSF to ensure they work effectively with the new arrangements for school inspections."Jim Knight said: “Parents must have all the information they need to compare different schools, choose the right school for their child and then track their child’s progress. “Through the achievement and attainment tables and Ofsted reports, many aspects of schools’ performance are already made public. But we know that parents sometimes find it difficult to build up a complete picture of a school or to work out how well their local schools are improving. “Sitting alongside Ofsted’s work, School Report Cards will be a new and simpler way for parents to choose and compare schools; and an easier way for them to understand how schools are raising standards, improving, and playing their role in supporting the wider development and wellbeing of children. “This year the Children, Schools and Families Select Committee called for us to make information on school standards easier for parents to understand. We are attracted to the simplicity of the New York model, with a single overall grade for each school, but we have asked the expert group for advice on this and we will consult widely on the design and contents. “We believe this new system, specifically designed for parents, will help schools show more clearly how they are helping their pupils to make excellent progress or to overcome the challenges of deprivation.”The format and content of School Report Cards will be subject to consultation, but they could include Key Stage 2 test and GCSE results, information on schools’ success in helping pupils with low prior attainment or from deprived backgrounds to make progress, and indicators such as levels of pupil absence or the take-up of healthy school lunches. The new expert group will also make recommendations as follows:• At Key Stage 1, examining whether the current system of requiring teachers to use nationally set tasks as part of moderated teacher assessment is working effectively;
• At Key Stage 2, what advice should be provided to schools to ensure that preparation for national curriculum tests at Key Stage 2 is proportionate and educationally appropriate;
• How assessment can support children in making the best possible progress over the transition between primary and secondary schools - particularly those who start Year 7 behind their peers;
• At Key Stage 3, how best to develop national-level sampling, taking into account experience in this country and abroad;
• At Key Stage 3, whether more can be done to ensure that every parent receives regular reports on their child’s progress in years 7, 8 and 9, and that teachers have the training and support to track progress rigorously;
• How best to ensure that this package of measures does not add unnecessarily to teachers’ workload. The expert group will consist of five core members: Maurice Smith, Tim Brighouse, Jim Rose, and headteachers Yasmin Bevan and Gill Mills. The group will have access to independent technical advice, and will consult others. The group will provide a report to the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families and will begin its work in October, concluding by February 2009. Jim Rose said: “This is a welcome announcement. The remit for the advisory group offers a timely opportunity to reflect on what we have learned about assessing and reporting progress, and to consider how to build on that experience for the benefit of pupils, and those who provide for them at Key Stage 3. The work of the group will also inform the current Primary Curriculum Review about important issues, such as how best to secure curricular continuity and progress in learning as pupils move from primary to secondary schools.”Later this year, the Government will also receive Lord Sutherland’s inquiry report about this summer’s delays to national tests. Ed Balls said: “Lord Sutherland's work is of vital importance and his detailed conclusions will inform the procurement and delivery of Key Stage 2 tests from 2010 onwards and for all future contracts. Future arrangements for procuring and carrying out sample testing will also be informed by his report, as will the wider work of the expert group.”
Editor's Notes
This press notice relates to 'England'
• Ed Balls made the announcements in a statement to the House of Commons. Copies of the statement are available here. • Ed Balls has written to all heads and local authorities today. • The full membership and terms of reference for the expert group can be found at Expert groupsSchool Report Card• The link below shows how the progress report is used in New York City and gives example of a report card; the design and contents of English report cards will be subject to full consultation. • Examples can be found at this link:http://schools.nyc.gov/Accountability/SchoolReports/ProgressReports/default.htm• e.g. Bronx Aerospace High School (X545)http://schools.nyc.gov/OA/SchoolReports/2006-07/ProgressReport_HS_X545.pdf Single level tests and Making Good Progress pilot • Early evidence from the Making Good Progress pilot suggests that when younger pupils take single level tests, they are working effectively; and so primary schools in the pilot will continue to enter their pupils for single level tests. But when older pupils aged 11 – 14 take the same tests, the tests do not differentiate between different abilities as they should.
• Because of this, the National Assessment Agency has advised us that: it is not possible to set levels for the round of single level tests taken in June by secondary school pupils; and that we should not proceed with piloting single level tests in Key Stage 3. Secondary schools will remain in the pilot and will continue to trial the other, important, progression measures - one-to-one tuition, and close ongoing assessment by teachers of pupils’ progress.
• We will continue to test the single level tests in primary schools in the pilot, and the pilot is being rigorously evaluated. Single level tests remain a viable alternative for the current end-of-Key Stage 2 tests if the evaluation shows that they help children make better progress; this is our only aim.
• An evaluation of the first year of the pilot will be published later this year. Ed Balls has written to all pilot schools today to explain the changes.A summary of the current testing and assessment arrangements
• KS1 tasks and tests (year 2, age 7) were introduced in 1991. More flexible arrangements were introduced in 2005, enabling schools to administer the tests tasks with little or no pressure on pupils at any time of year: they are not time-limited tests taken under exam conditions. Reading, writing and maths tests and tasks are administered informally as part of normal classroom activity, at any time during the year, so that children may not know they are taking a test. They are marked by teachers, and so inform teachers’ overall assessments. The Department does not publish school-level KS1 performance data; KS1 teacher assessments are published at national and local authority level.
• KS2 tests (year 6, age 11) were introduced in 1995. Pupils take time-limited tests in English, maths and science under secure exam conditions during one week in May. The tests are externally marked. Results are reported at national and local level, and at school level in the Achievement and Attainment Tables. They are the principal performance measure for primary schools.
• KS3 tests (year 9, age 14) were introduced in 1993. Pupils take time limited tests in English, maths and science in May under secure exam conditions. The tests are externally set and marked. Results are published at national and local level, and at school level in the Achievement and Attainment Tables. • Teacher assessment means ongoing assessment by teachers in the classroom. The Government is providing £150m funding over three years (to 2011) to help schools use ongoing assessment to drive up pupils’ progress. The ‘Assessment for Learning’ approach, which is proven to help children make faster progress, involves: gaining clear evidence about how to drive up an individual pupil’s attainment; an understanding between teachers and pupils on what they need to improve; and agreement on the steps needed to promote individual progress.Contact Details
Public Enquiries 0870 000 2288, info@dcsf.gsi.gov.uk
Press Notice 2008/0229 (Previously known as 2008/0229)
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