Scotland’s national standardised literacy and numeracy assessments have cost the Scottish taxpayer millions of pounds and proven hugely controversial - and now teachers say they have been unable to get access to them, or their school’s data, since the start of the school year.
Tes Scotland revealed in January that a new contractor would take over the delivery of Scotland’s standardised national assessments (SNSAs) in literacy and numeracy from August, with the cost to the taxpayer expected to be £17 million over five years.
The new contractor AlphaPlus - which was taken on in May last year in a bid to ensure a smooth transition - was due to deliver “appropriate assessments and an assessment platform in time for August 2022”, but a number of teachers say that they have been unable to access the tests since schools returned from the summer holidays.
Blair Minchin, a primary teacher based in Edinburgh, asked in a tweet this week if there was “any update on when the SNSAs will be available for schools to use”, adding: “We like to use them as a diagnostic tool at the start of term but that time is rapidly fading.”
Mr Minchin said a message on the SNSA website said the assessments were being transferred to a new platform and would be released “next month”. However, Mr Minchin said the message had been the same since August.
Tes Scotland understands that, as well as being unable to let pupils sit the tests, schools are also struggling to access their data on literacy and numeracy performance.
Other teachers echoed his concern, including a primary headteacher who tagged the Scottish government in his reply asking for answers.
The SNSAs were introduced in August 2017 but have proven controversial, largely because children in the first year of primary school are required to take the tests, when some will be just four years old.
Experts have questioned if useful information can be gleaned from testing at such a young age, as well as whether it is in the best interests of children to put such a focus on literacy and numeracy at such an early stage in their time at school.
The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) review team - which reviewed Scotland’s Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) last year - also questioned whether it is worth testing every child’s literacy and numeracy in P1, P4, P7 and S3, or if “a simple sample-based assessment” would be “richer”.
Greg Dempster, general secretary of primary school leaders’ organisation AHDS, said the situation would be “frustrating” for schools and called for the issue to be resolved as soon as possible, given that one of the key features of the assessments was that they could be used when schools and teachers deemed the time was right - as opposed to at a specific point in the school year.
He said: “The tests have always been about schools being able to use them at a time that works for them and that suits them - some schools might want to use the tests earlier in the school year so they can use them more formatively. So it’s really important if they want to use them that they are available. Hopefully, this issue will be resolved quickly.”
When the government first went out to tender for a contractor for SNSAs in 2016, it put the cost of the assessments at £10 million over five years, with the Australian Council for Educational Research, through ACER UK, taken on to fulfil the contract.
However, new contractor AlphaPlus was taken on in May last year after winning the £17 million contract to deliver standardised assessments over the next five years.
When Tes Scotland put the figures to the Scottish government in January, it disputed that the cost of delivering the tests had risen by £7 million. It said that in 2016 it was “not possible to make an accurate cost estimate” and that the price tag attached to the tender was “a guide price for potential bidders”.
It also said that the bill was bigger because the new contractor would be responsible for delivering both the English language SNSAs and the Gaelic version of the tests, MCNG.
A Scottish government spokesperson said: “The new shared platform for SNSAs and their Gaelic equivalent, the MCNG, is now undergoing final technical testing and assurance and will be made available to schools very shortly.
“All registered SNSA account managers will receive an email with joining instructions as soon as the system is launched.”
An AlphaPlus spokesperson said the service would be launched with schools “in the near future”.
