Change is in the air again for Scottish education. After a series of important reviews and reports, the Hayward review is looking at the endpoint: qualifications.
In our house, we feel that we’ve got skin in the game. One of our children will be doing a national exam every year for the next nine years. In my school, most colleagues still love the principles of the Scottish curriculum but have found them lost in the implementation. So what might change look like?
Firstly, we need to set clear aims for our qualifications. A reason for some qualifications to exist is so that they record how much learning has been done by the time students leave school. These so-called “low stakes” qualifications - which are not driven by competition in the same way as other qualifications - include National 4s, the driving test or swimming certificates.
A second reason for qualifications is to compare students competing for entry to the next step of their careers, typically university entrance. These are always “high stakes” because there is a limited resource at the endpoint. This means that it is much more important to have assessments that are standardised and with less room for error. Highers, SATs in the US, accountancy exams or Olympic swimming heats are examples of these kinds of assessments.
A third reason for qualifications is to assess the state of the school system; politicians and newspapers like to use Highers or GCSEs for this purpose. But this is generally at odds with benefits for students, because it makes assessment even more “high stakes” for all concerned, and puts pressure on schools to look to their results rather than what might benefit individual students.
A final reason is to motivate and guide teachers, families and students towards the goals of the education system. But despite the boilerplate language at the front of each Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) arrangements document there is little in our qualifications system that encourages students to be - as set out in the “four capacities” of Curriculum for Excellence - confident individuals, responsible citizens and effective contributors.
So what might manageable change look like and what should we do?
1. Set a clear learning goal for the nation and record that with a smaller set of assessments
We could aim for all students to leave Scottish education with five qualifications at whatever level is appropriate. We could include the four capacities by requiring one of those qualifications to represent the wider person such as the Personal Development Award or the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award. We should change the school leaving age to an “education leaving age” of the summer of your 18th year to make this exit point clear to all and we could clarify this set of qualifications into a Scottish baccalaureate or leaving certificate.
2. Fewer high-stakes assessments
An S4 student in Scotland typically does more and longer exams than a university student. We should reduce their number and length. This would free up time to teach more, reduce pressure on teachers and students, and cost less. However, we have to acknowledge that families are often still keen on qualifications at this stage. A solution might be a one-week diet of national assessment, a sort of “National 3/4/5-lite”. This could be taken in sampled subjects or in all subjects to give guidance to teachers and students as to what they should do in their final year of schooling. They should be national exams because these are more efficient to mark, take up less time for students and replicate the next phase of secondary school education more closely.
3. Retain the wide range of qualifications based on continuous assessment
These are designed as an alternative for students who don’t wish to take high-stakes, competitive qualifications. or who need more time to prepare for them. These qualifications should, over time, be individually reassessed so that they articulate properly with their high-stakes partners. They should all be brought under the National 1-5 naming system to give equity. We should be more flexible in choosing which N5s are assessed in this way, and which N4s use examinations to give them higher status for students and to make their assessment more efficient.
4. Separate assessment of schools from assessment of learning, where possible
One way might be a sampling exercise in S3 or S4 where an annual representative set of students is assessed in key curricular areas. Developments in technology might help to speed this up and make it less easy to game. Maths and science could be assessed by online multiple-choice assessments akin to the model used by the Scottish National Standardised Assessments (SNSAs). Literacy subjects could be assessed by comparative judgement engines such as the one developed by the No More Marking company. This would give schools and their external partners richer data about where there were areas of success and what problems needed fixing in the often overlooked earlier years of secondary.
5. Reduce national data sets such as Insight to those parts that have a sound statistical base
We might continue to measure positive destinations, total qualifications gained against deprivation and a measure of literacy, numeracy and wellbeing. We might ditch detailed breakdowns of results in cohorts that are fewer than 100 and unlikely to be statistically significant.
6. Think very hard about the time taken up by our national qualifications system
There is an opportunity cost in everything we do, and time spent administering summative assessments that do not contribute to improving learning is time lost to something else. A very large proportion of teachers’ attention is taken up by thinking about getting high-stakes assessment right. That is a good thing, and our students and families value this teacher expertise.
However, it comes at the cost of much of the ideals that ran through Curriculum for Excellence (CfE). Whatever change we make to qualifications has to take this into account. We should reduce assessment at age 15, link school leaving qualifications into a CfE baccalaureate, slim down the qualifications system, and clarify the best of what we’ve got into a gradual reform - for everyone’s sake.
Damian Hayes is a depute headteacher at a secondary school in Scotland
