National testing plan lacks a ‘compelling narrative’

The Scottish Government’s new National Improvement Framework (NIF), which includes standardised national testing of pupils in primary schools, is unlikely to be agreed by all stakeholders, MSPs have heard.

Although Holyrood’s Education and Culture Committee this morning heard the teaching union EIS, the Association of Directors of Education in Scotland (ADES) and the National Parent Forum of Scotland (NPFS) were supportive of the NIF in principle, a number of ‘red lines’ emerged which may not be agreed by the time the proposal comes back before the committee.

Craig Munro of ADES said the NIF lacked a “compelling narrative” about how data is collected and how the governance arrangements would work in terms of accountability.

The current document is full of the language of “the culture of compliance” and “system speak” he said.

Currently local authorities gather data by standardised testing, the committee heard, but methods were tailored to local needs.

Susan Quinn, convener of the EIS's education committee, said she could not see how national standardised testing could avoid target-setting, which would add to pressure on teachers.

“We are clear that there are major issues around putting a test in place that will be for every single child.

“There are clear educational arguments as to why it isn't going to be helpful to the young people.

“There are clearly going to be young people who will be disadvantaged by a test of this nature and we would argue that it is counter-intuitive to teacher professional judgement to say you have to use a particular assessment tool to back up your assessment judgement.

“We would argue it is for local authorities to decide what their assessment policy is,” she said.

Iain Ellis of the NPFS said league tables would be “unavoidable” after standardised testing because journalists would seek to get the data, but he said parents were left out of data currently collected.

Munro said educators need to be careful with data. “If you tell a child they are in the one per cent, the bottom in numeracy in Scotland, they’ll never look at mathematics again,” he said.