“What comes next: A fairer approach to primary assessment” is a paper by the Institute for Public Policy Research, a progressive think tank.
Here’s the IPPR’s own summary of its report:
We set out four recommendations for immediate implementation from the 2027/28 academic year.
Recommendation 1: The Department for Education should establish an independent ‘statutory accessibility and bias audit’ for all key stage 2 assessments.
Recommendation 2: The Department for Education should remove the Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar (SPaG) test.
Recommendation 3: The Department for Education should change how results are published and reported by:
– ending the publication of school-level key stage 2 results, which would also end the publication of school-level league tables
– using rolling averages (for instance, three- or five-year averages) of attainment data from the department and from Ofsted for internal monitoring and inspection.
Recommendation 4: The Department for Education should introduce a competency framework for pupil results in place of scaled scores.
However, reform must go further to build a truly equitable system that properly supports disadvantaged pupils. Therefore, we also set out a further recommendation to act as the foundation of a longer-term, more significant reform to primary school assessment.
Recommendation 5: The Department for Education should introduce a random sampling approach to assessment across years 3–6.
Emphasis added.
. . . which also, incidentally, creates the always-preferred bureaucratic ‘explanation’, viz, “since the assessment metric was restructured to be more-accurate and -inclusive of disadvantaged populations, it is not possible to extract meaningful comparisons between current results and prior-year results”, IOW, you won’t be able to discern how badly things are going. It’s a pretty-poor bureaucrat who can’t “improve” the reporting method in this way every few years. See also Appleby, Sir Humphrey.
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How do you test them for competency (4) if you don’t test them for competency (2)?
One of the few successes of the last elected government in the United Kingdom was in education – at least education in England (Scotland and Wales are under other authorities – as is Northern Ireland).
And, credit where credit is due, Michael Gove (a man I can not stand in other matters) was a large part of the reason for that improvement in education in England. For example, there are several good schools in my home-town of Kettering – it is one of the remaining good things about Kettering.
Now that improvement is being undone – it is a tragedy, a terrible tragedy.
The children are being betrayed by a “compassionate” government (elected and unelected) that does not want them to learn to read and write – or understand mathematics.
If people can read to a decent standard, they can read dissenting opinions – rather than just nod at whatever media, sporting and pop music “personalities” tell them to think.
And if people are taught to write, they can organize their thoughts – form dissenting opinions, and communicate these thoughts to other people.
And if people understand mathematics – they can tell when government spending is really going UP, rather than believing endless lies about “cuts”.
That is not what the government wants – what it wants is a mindless population screaming slogans to the effect that the government is not left wing enough – that it should be more leftist, spend more money, impose more taxes and regulations, and, of course, push “Diversity and Inclusion” till the people of this country are wiped off the face of the Earth.
Paul Marks, it is not just Gove who deserves credit for the improvement in England’s schools (for anyone who is new to this story, see this BBC article “England up in reading, maths and science rankings as Scotland and Wales fall behind”), but Nick Gibb who served three separate stints as Minister of State for Education under four prime ministers. The fact that he voluntarily kept coming back to this relatively humble ministerial role demonstrated his commitment.
There is a very simple way to improve the successes of disadvantaged kids. Here is my idea, assign one adult to each child and have that adult assess the child’s progress and allow them to adjust that child’s educational journey to ensure what their needs and their success is maximized.
Who would such a person be? What delightful, kid loving angel would make such a commitment to one kid? Why that person is called “a parent”. Allow the parents to control where the tax money raised for education goes by privatizing the schools and giving parents the money to spend on their kids’ education and the success of everyone at the lower levels would DRAMATICALLY improve almost overnight. Kids at the top already have this because their parents have power to influence their education by moving to a place with good schools, getting them the educational materials they need and the facilities they need, getting them online tutors, and being involved and monitoring themselves. People on the lower end of the scale are almost entirely powerless. They live where they live because they can’t move, they don’t have the money for tutors or facilities, and so their kids are stuck in schools of the most appalling degree, schools where compulsory attendance is akin to child abuse.
Let parents take charge of the resources spend on their kids education, and realize that education is there to help kids learn not to give teachers a job.
And there is plenty of money. The Chicago public school system is funded to the tune of $30,000 per year per student, Baltimore at a similar number. But both have track records that are nothing short of shameful. For example, at one point Baltimore school district at 4 students who could do math at grade level. Not 4% four individual students.
My kids were very lucky that I got them a great education (including public schools), but one of them had a terrible math teacher in 7th grade, and so he struggled the rest of his life with basic algebra, which flowed into all his other math experience and up to college (he is doing amazingly well now though) But one year, one bad teacher and the impact was dramatic. What about kids who have terrible teachers all the time? Remember, due to the unions, bad teachers are impossible to fire.
Why is it so bad in these school districts? Because teachers are impossible to fire, and because schools are bursting with administrators — most schools have about as many administrators as they have teachers. Just let that sink in, just think about that when you hear teachers complaining that they have to buy supplies for the class out of their own pocket, think about that when you hear they have to share textbooks or that there are 40 kids to the class. It isn’t government parsimony, it is the flood of administrators, box checkers, red tape tiers and form fillers.
It reminds me of that section in the Declaration of Independence: “He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.”
Would that parents could declare their independence from the tyrannical school bureaucracy.
Fraser – all true, thank you for writing the comment. And New York City and Los Angeles are much the same – NYC spends even more money, per child, on “education” than Chicago does, but few people come out of its government schools educated – at least not in the old sense of that word. Governor John Jay’s dream has turned into a nightmare – but then he also thought that government prisons would make people better (would “reform” them). His hopes, for government schools and government prisons, were sincere (he meant well) – but, after two centuries, it is clear that his hopes were misguided.
Natalie – I had forgotten about Nick Gibb and I should not have forgotten, thank you for pointing out the truth.
Yes indeed, Nick Gibb deserves praise on this matter.
Fraser, that’s dangerous thinking. You’re assuming that parents give a shit.