The highly problematic outcomes of testing in schools is definitely coming to a halt.
Across the media today are the early conclusions of an enquiry into education. The Cambridge University-led Primary Review today published its interim report with depressing findings. Based on interviews with parents, teachers, children and members of the community, the Review team headed by Professor Robin Alexander reported ‘deep anxiety’ amongst children. Whilst a wide range of issues was found to be troubling children, from pollution to terrorism, ‘scary’ testing was something which was highlighted as worrisome.
That children in the UK face many worries today, as was also recently highlighted by Unicef’s report on Child Well-being, is very sad. But what is especially sad is the evidence in the Primary Review’s findings of the negative effect testing is having on children. Why, because it is so utterly unnecessary – not testing, but the anxiety which is currently accompanying it.
The ‘Sats’ tests have come to dominate much of life in primary school, for both teachers and pupils. Theoretically they provide an un-intrusive gauge of primary children’s learning levels. However, chronicled particularly of late, the reality is that primary testing is actually doing something very different – distorting the curriculum in the pursuit of targets.
There is to an extent a misperception that at the heart of the damage done by Sats is an inherent problem with testing young pupils. Yet, as any teacher who has ever carried out weekly spelling tests or set a surprise ‘pop-quiz’ knows, testing per se is not the issue. The problem is when pressure is introduced into the equation. Pressure on schools from the government to produce the results Whitehall needs without the means. If Sats meant tests simply taken at the end of the year to indicate what a child had learnt, it is unlikely that testing would have featured largely if at all in the Primary Review’s findings.