Lost In Space – We’re Currently In A SATs Comparison Vacuum
The tests results are in, but we still have no clue as to where children’s scores sit on the expected standards scale. It’s going to be an anxious summer of uncertainty for teachers, says Michael Tidd…
- by Michael Tidd
When July rolls around we usually find ourselves tying up loose ends and looking forward to a restful summer; taking comfort in the knowledge that all of this year’s trials and tribulations will soon be behind us. But this year it seems that our end-of-term tidying up isn’t as straightforward as it used to be.
As the six-week holiday begins, there will be many unanswered questions – some quite significant – particularly for those involved in tested year groups.
Meaningless figures
For a start, having been through the trauma of May’s SATs tests in both Key Stages, we now know just how many of our children have reached the expected standards (and, of course, how many did not). We even know what scaled scores they received.
But in the comparison vacuum that we currently inhabit, these figures are pretty much meaningless. Naturally, we’ll all be comparing with neighbouring schools and friends in other areas – but until we know what everybody else in the country got, plenty of teachers and heads will be fretting that their children’s results won’t be quite good enough. The matter is then made worse by progress measures. Many of us will be worrying about falling below the attainment floor standard this year (65% seems a tall order, given the challenge of some of those tests papers) so there will be plenty of schools waiting anxiously on a progress measure that won’t be available for some time yet. Each school’s progress measures depend on the results of pupils up and down the country, and it will take a while for reviews and re-marking to be accounted for before we can put all the pieces together. It could be a long and uncomfortable wait for schools where that 65% target hasn’t quite been met, with the various swords of Ofsted, the DfE, Regional Schools Commissions and Local Authorities hanging over their heads.
The one area we do have a little more control over could be the one that causes the biggest problems. Over the past few months, teachers throughout the country have had their teacher assessments moderated by local authority teams. Of course, many thousands more haven’t. They’ve been left to make those judgements as best they can. And the problems are manifold.
Your numbers being good = someone else’s being bad
The levels of confusion around this year’s teacher assessment are huge, especially with writing. Using a dictionary to check spelling, for example, is okay – but what happens if a child needs it for every other word? Success criteria are fine, but some authorities will only allow them on the whiteboard, not in books. And for some ‘Greater Depth’ is equivalent to the old Level 5, while for others it᾿s akin to writing War and Peace. It’s been chaotic to say the least. On top of all of that, there’s the need to give each band a ‘nominal score’, so that the department can concoct a progress measure – and by the time RAISEonline appears, this year it looks as though we could be heading towards a perfect storm of data.
In the dog-eat-dog world of school comparisons, you can only be as good as your numbers – and from this year, to have good numbers you need to rely on someone else’s being bad. Suddenly, the tests issued back in May seem to pale into insignificance. From here on in it’s a numbers game. A game over which we have no control. But maybe that’s actually the saving grace. It’s too late to do anything about it now. The work is done, the tests taken, the judgements judged. All we can do is wait.
There’s no sense in worrying. Much better instead to get out the passport, caravan, barbecue or Kindle and enjoy several weeks not having to deal with any of it. September will soon be upon us again – and the best way to be ready for it is to make the most of the summer.
Michael Tidd is deputy headteacher at Edgewood Primary School in Hucknall, Nottingham; for more information, visit michaelt1979.wordpress.com or follow @MichaelT1979
