Yesterday saw near blanket coverage of concerns about the testing system, fuelled largely by a report from the Civitas think tank, which found 90 per cent of secondary teachers refusing to trust the results of pupils who took the tests in year six. Teaching to the test was widely blamed.
Admittedly, the sample was small: only just over 100 staff were questioned, as ministers were quick to point out. However, the survey is in line with research among science teachers published earlier this year for the Wellcome Trust, (a summary of which is here) which found that most were happier to trust teacher assessment judgements than test results, with teaching to the test again a widespread worry. The Civitas paper’s timing, published as it was to coincide with the release of key stage 2 national test data which themselves have been questioned followed this summer’s shambolic marking arrangements, perhaps further explains why it was so lapped up by the media.
The Civitas paper is here (albeit the link takes a bit of time to work):
News stories covering it and the test results are here:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/primary-pupils-fail-to-master-the-3-rs-885183.html
The leader is here:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2008/08/05/dl0501.xml