The A-Ha Moment – Are We Testing Too Much, Or Just Not Testing Pupils Properly?
Assessment isn't just for accountability – it also has to be about learning, says Greg Watson…
- by Greg Watson
“The goal here is not to test,” said former US Education Secretary, Arne Duncan, last October, in an interview with PBS that heralded a change in how the US government viewed assessment.
“The goal is to improve instruction, to improve what is going on every single day for that child in the classroom,” Duncan continued, emphasising the shift in mindset. “And where we’re getting good information to teachers and to parents and to students themselves that empowers them to build upon strengths and work on weaknesses, that’s a good thing. Where we are doing things that are redundant or duplicative or not helpful, well, that’s a waste of everyone’s time and energy.”
‘A more rational place’
Having increased the amount of top-down assessment over the last few decades, a report by the US Council of the Great City Schools found that students were typically spending 20 to 25 hours per year on mandatory assessments. In response, the Obama administration said that the pressures of testing were ‘taking the joy out of teaching and learning’, and the White House recommended capping state-mandated testing at two per cent of class time, while highlighting the benefits of tests that ‘enhance teaching and learning’. This was universally applauded – and we can understand why. US officials had gone too far down one particular road of assessment, and they acknowledged that they needed to ‘get to a more rational place.’ At some point, most education systems have implemented a top-down model of teaching, learning and assessment. Countries looking for a major step-up tend to start by building new schools, reforming the curriculum and placing emphasis on national testing. Once they have done that, they then move into a different phase, in which the questions are about improving teaching and learning. This is where I think the UK is – in varying degrees – right now. It has been interesting to watch the evolution of SNP policy in this area. When Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon unveiled her plans for a new programme of national testing in Scotland’s primary schools last year, the reaction was fast. And strong. In the intervening months, the move has been positioned differently, with the SNP now going out of its way to reassure the profession that teacher judgement lies at the heart of the system, that there will be no narrowing of the curriculum and no teaching to the test. In other words, they’re looking very carefully into how the data will be used by teachers for the benefit of their pupils.
Assessment models for the future
In his paper ‘Clarifying the purposes of educational assessment’, Dr Paul Newton’s outlined how assessment can be used for 22 different, distinct purposes. These ranged from formative and diagnostic assessments, to assessments that enabled ‘institution monitoring’, ‘system monitoring’ and ‘national accounting’. His conclusion was that you should only use one kind of assessment for one thing; the moment you try to do more than that, it won’t work. The moral here is that if everything in assessment gravitates to top-down objectives, then you’re losing the many other benefits that assessment can bring. Assessment should be used positively to identify strengths and weaknesses, enable effective intervention, address problems and highlight where to focus attention. It should also be put into the hands of teachers, rather than monitoring systems. To do this successfully, teachers need to be given the right tools. In my view, one of the great positives of the Commission on Assessment Without Levels’ final report is the promise of better CPD in assessment. After all, assessment is a skill that needs to be learned. David Weston, Chief Executive of the Teacher Development Trust, believes that knowledge in formative assessment needs to become a central part of all CPD. By increasing understanding of the different types and uses of assessment, you can make smart choices about the time and money that you put into assessment and what will give you the best return on investment. Thankfully, one advantage of assessment is that you do not need much of it to identify which pupils are falling behind or not using their full abilities. Assessment data can give you that ‘A-ha!’ moment; when the reason why a pupil is hiding her light under a bushel is finally revealed, you can watch as she begins to realise her true potential. The US is just starting out on this journey, but I’m glad it’s reached the right conclusion. Arne Duncan went on to say, “Great assessments actually improve instruction, drive teaching and learning, and are not in conflict with it. We just have to make sure that it’s more the norm rather than the exception.” I wholeheartedly agree.
Greg Watson is Chief Executive of GL Assessment
