A survey of promoted staff in primary schools has found that the majority say the Scottish government’s highly controversial literacy and numeracy assessments are useful, with close to half reporting that the tests helped to inform teacher judgement about pupil progress.
However, more than 50 per cent of the 1,000-plus heads, deputes and principal teachers surveyed also said the Scottish National Standardised Assessments (SNSAs) added significantly to workload, and just a third (32 per cent) said the tests provided them with information they would otherwise not have.
On the issue of whether the tests would help improve the consistency of teacher judgments between schools - a key purpose of the tests - the teachers were divided, with 37 per cent believing they would and 30 per cent believing they would not.
Also from the AHDS survey: Most depute heads ‘not keen’ on headteacher posts
Background: Scrap ‘cruel’ testing of five-year-olds, say Scottish campaigners
Quick read: Teachers were given ‘little or no’ information on P1 tests
The cost: Total bill to date for national tests? £8 million
And 480 respondents to the survey by primary school leaders body AHDS opted to leave additional comments, just 12 of which were entirely positive, and 451 of which were “wholly negative”.
Of the negative comments, 188 were critical of the P1 assessments specifically. The Scottish parliament voted last year to “halt” the P1 literacy and numeracy tests after reports that some pupils had been left in tears and concerns about the reliability of data for this age group, given a child’s performance may vary from one day to the next.
Other issues raised were that previous assessments used in some councils had been “more appropriate for pupils and provided more useful information for staff”; the “huge” ICT challenges the online tests posed for some schools, and the time it took to administer the tests.
The survey report said: “There were many comments about the administration of tests using up management time or support staff time and about the results being of little or no value.”
One respondent commented: “In a school like mine, with no ICT suite and no WiFi, the roll-out was an absolute nightmare!”
AHDS surveyed 1,164 of its members, including 742 primary headteachers and asked them if they agreed with the statement “SNSAs are useful”. Some 51 per cent did, 22 per cent did not, and 28 per cent neither agreed nor disagreed.
The survey also asked if they agreed with the statement “SNSAs provide information we would not otherwise have” 32 per cent agreed; 44 per cent disagreed, and 24 per cent neither agreed nor disagreed.
When asked if they agreed with the statement “SNSAs help inform teacher judgment about pupil progress” 48 per cent agreed; 24 per cent disagree and 27 per cent neither agreed nor disagreed.
When asked if they agreed with the statement “SNSAs help inform consistent teacher judgements from school to school” 37 per cent agreed; 30 per cent disagreed and 33 per cent neither agreed nor disagreed.
The final statement was “SNSAs add significantly to workload” and 54 per cent agreed; 23 per cent disagreed and 24 per cent neither agreed nor disagreed.
Totals do not always add up to 100, owing to rounding.
