The Live Wire



Press Release

National Test results

3 August 2010

Commenting on today's publication of the National Test results, Christine Blower, general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, the largest teachers' union, said;

"Despite enormous political pressure and with immense courage, around a quarter of primary schools in England refused to carry out this year's Key Stage 2 tests as part of the NAHT and NUT campaign against SATs. Thanks to their unity, the actions of over 4,000 schools will be sufficient to render this year's league tables an irrelevance.

"League tables are the core problem, as is the publication of material leading to league tables. They cannot provide a true reflection of all that schools do.

"The real purpose of teacher assessment is to benefit children, parents and carers, so that they understand how well the child is doing. By sharing that information at school level, a child's achievement is understood within the context of that particular school. Therefore its incorporation into national league tables is in our view both unnecessary and unreliable. If teacher assessment were to be routinely published it would run the same risk as the high-stakes tests, narrowing the curriculum as is evident from SATs results for English and Maths.

"The marginal shifts in percentages paint a picture of the vagaries of test questions rather than a change in standards. Teachers know from their own assessment that a minority of children need intensive support such as one to one tuition; they don't need irrelevant tests to tell them that. Indeed, research shows that Key Stage 2 test results have a significant margin of error.

"As much as £20m in public money would be saved by a move to sample testing, which would be significantly more valid and not create a distorting effect on the curriculum.

"Parents are more interested in their children's happiness, security and progress across the curriculum than they are in the results of the deeply flawed SATs.

"The fact is that neither Scotland nor Wales has SATs tests. Experience from these countries and from academics is compelling. In our view, the intellectual argument is won and the NUT would be delighted to work with the government to achieve something which we think would be very much better for the education service. The forthcoming review of testing may well deliver this, but we need assurances that it will be fully independent and comprehensive in its remit. We must have a system of assessment that is fit for purpose and for that reason I call on Michael Gove to listen to the teaching profession."



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National Union of Teachers

National Union of Teachers

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