Established 1847 'for the promotion of Sound Learning'
News Release
Article created: Thursday, Thursday, January 03, 2008
League Table approach and too much Testing remains Harmful to Education, says EIS
The Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) has called for a radical rethink on the over-use of testing in schools and the damaging construction of ‘league tables' with the data collected. The EIS believes that too many local authorities continue to place too much emphasis on narrow testing and the collation of associated data which brings little or no benefit to schools, teachers and pupils. The end of formal National Tests in 2002/03 and the subsequent introduction of the Scottish Survey of Achievement (SSA) have failed to quell many Education Authorities' desire to submit pupils and teachers to an excessive testing regime, the EIS argues.
Commenting, EIS General Secretary Ronnie Smith said, “Despite the end of National Tests some five years ago, many authorities seem unable to cure their addiction to excessive testing in schools and continue to favour the flawed ‘league-table' approach to measuring school success. This is in direct contradiction to current national educational priorities and has a negative impact on learning and teaching in schools. The use of such widespread testing places additional pressure on pupils and teachers to perform well in these tests – this has the inevitable result of narrowing the scope for teachers to use their professional judgement in what they teach, with considerable pressure to ‘teach to the test' to avoid criticism of the school when league tables are constructed. This tick-box approach to measuring school success is of little value, and serves only to provide figures for education authority statisticians to crunch while simultaneously demoralising pupils and teachers.”
Mr Smith continued, “With the continuing development of A Curriculum for Excellence, coupled with the recommendations of the Assessment is for Learning programme, it is now totally counter-productive for authorities to continue to push for narrow standardised tests and the collection of associated data under the guise of ‘quality assurance'. Such a simplistic approach, while apparently attractive to local authorities, does not empower teachers to tailor their teaching to the needs of specific classes or individual pupils. With the greater emphasis on personal learning planning for all pupils, it is clear that there is no place for the ‘one size fits all approach' which is encouraged by the continuing use of mechanisms such as National Assessment testing. For these reasons, the EIS believes that all local authorities should end the collation of national assessment data as it does little to support quality teaching and learning and could impede the successful delivery of A Curriculum for Excellence in schools.”
He added, “It is not just the matter of the collation of the data itself. The whole national assessments mechanism, and the way in which it is used in schools, is itself questionable. The introduction of the Scottish Survey of Achievement and the development of national assessment banks containing associated materials was intended to simplify and improve the process of testing, but has largely failed to do so. The materials held in the national assessment banks are of questionable value, add nothing to the educational process and continue to undermine the judgement of teachers by removing their role in determining appropriate methods of assessing their own pupils' progress in the classroom. In particular, this approach undermines the drive towards the increased use of formative assessment while continuing to detract from the core purpose of teaching and learning. It is now time for the use of the Assessment Banks to be terminated, to allow for the introduction of more appropriate assessment and reporting arrangements which would be more compatible with the ethos of A Curriculum for Excellence”.
(ENDS)
For further information, please contact:
Brian Cooper (Media & Communications), Tel 0131 225 6244, Mob 07974 715101
Ronnie Smith (General Secretary), Tel 0131 225 6244, Mob 07974 182744