Teachers are reporting an increase in the use of pencil-and-paper tests under exam conditions in Scottish primary schools, according to new research.
The researchers say an increase in testing has arisen because teachers and school leaders were struggling to determine when a child had achieved a Curriculum for Excellence level - even though Scottish National Standardised Assessments (SNSAs) are supposed to support this judgment.
One small focus group identified 15 different assessment tools used in their schools, many for measuring performance in literacy and numeracy.
One primary head said that moderation practices across Scotland were “all very different”, even between primaries feeding into the same secondary school.
Difficulty in awarding accurate levels
The research states: “The difficulty that schools encountered in awarding accurate levels has led to a proliferation in the number of third-party assessment tools used in schools.”
It adds: “Teachers were clear that schools and local authorities sometimes favoured assessment tools because of their ability to generate a robust calculation of a child’s attainment, even if these were not necessarily the most pedagogically appropriate. Teachers in focus groups explained that there has been an increase in the use of pencil-and-paper tests conducted in exam conditions.”
SNSAs are supposed to be used by teachers in Scotland to help them judge whether pupils in P1, P4, P7 and S3 have achieved the expected level in literacy and numeracy. This data is then collated nationally and published every December.
One primary depute head in the research said that SNSAs “don’t provide us with anything” and that they would scrap them.
The research was commissioned by the Scottish Green Party and carried out by the University of Stirling’s Professor Mark Priestley and Dr Joseph Smith. Green education spokesperson Ross Greer is calling for SNSAs to be scrapped to ease the “crushing workload” of teachers and “reduce the pressure to ‘write off’ some pupils”; he says that abolishing the tests would save £5-6 million every year.
Last year, primary school leaders’ body the AHDS called for SNSAs to be scrapped in P1, but stopped short of calling for them to be scrapped: a survey of almost 1,300 Scottish school leaders found that almost 60 per cent agreed that SNSAs were generally useful, but that the P1 tests took too long and interfered with play-based learning.
The Greens’ research paper was based on two focus groups, one involving school leaders and a second with classroom practitioners. Some 10 people took part: four secondary school leaders and two primary leaders took part in the first group; one primary principal teacher and three primary teachers participated in the second.
‘Not about helping the children that really need it’
The research finds that “much data on pupil attainment was collected to feed the demands of a system, rather than to support learners”. As the primary principal teacher puts it: “It’s about raising your figures. It’s not about helping the children that really need it.”
The primary depute said that the system is “set up to write children off from a really young age” and made the case for recognising the distance pupils have travelled rather than the proportion attaining a certain level; “huge” numbers of pupils in their school had made “massive progress”, but it was “not recognised anywhere”.
The researchers see “ample evidence” in Scotland and beyond that “crude use of data to achieve narrow accountability goals has a major effect of generating perverse incentives”, adding that this will “result in the development of performative cultures in schools”.
A Scottish government spokesperson said: “The SNSAs are a helpful source of information for teachers when considering children’s progress in literacy and numeracy.
“Our survey of staff using the assessments in 2023-24 [seen by Tes but not available online] showed that the majority found the assessments helpful in informing future teaching and learning.”
The spokesperson added: “It is important that local authority and school-level monitoring and reporting systems are fit for purpose, prioritise teaching and learning, and avoid unnecessary workload.”
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