Оценивание в начальной школе Англии: SATs и изменения в системе

Assessment tests for primary schools in England

The National Curriculum assessment usually refers to the statutory assessments carried out in primary schools in England, colloquially known as standard assessment tasks (SATs). The assessments are made up of a combination of testing and teacher assessment judgements and are used in all government funded primary schools in England to assess the attainment of pupils against the programmes of study of the National Curriculum at the end of Key Stages 1 and 2 where all pupils are aged 6, 7, 10 and 11 respectively. Until 2008, assessments were also required at the end of Key Stage 3 (14 year olds) in secondary schools after which they were scrapped.

The assessments were introduced following the introduction of a National Curriculum to schools in England and Wales under the Education Reform Act 1988. As the curriculum was gradually rolled out from 1989, statutory assessments were introduced between 1991 and 1995, with those in Key Stage 1 first, following by Key Stages 2 and 3 respectively as each cohort completed a full key stage. The assessments were introduced only for the core subjects of English, mathematics and science. The first assessments in Key Stage 1 were a range of cross curricular tasks to be delivered in the classroom, known as standardised assessment tasks hence the common acronym 'SATs'. However, the complexity of the use of these meant they were quickly replaced by more formal tasks. Further changes came in 2008 when the government announced that testing in Key Stage 3 was to be scrapped altogether. In 2013, then Education Minister, Michael Gove announced that when the new version of the National Curriculum was introduced to schools from 2014, the system of attainment levels would be removed. As a result, since 2016, the old system has levels that are no longer used as part of statutory assessment. Instead, tests and teacher assessments now follow different models at each key stage.

National Curriculum Assessments are now carried out only at the end of Key Stages 1 and 2. At both key stages the process includes a combination of tests and teacher assessment judgements. The first round of assessments in the new model was undertaken in 2016.

The National Curriculum only extends to pupils in Years 1 to 11 of compulsory education in England. Outside of the statutory National Curriculum assessment in years 2 and 6, the only other centrally collected assessment data is from GCSE exams, usually taken in Year 11, and from the phonics screening check in Year 1. For pupils in other year groups there are no centralised assessments, although schools are free to use tests and examinations either of their own making, or purchased from a supplier. In the Early Years Foundation Stage, where children are aged under 5, assessment takes place using a separate framework. There is also a times table test in Year 4 which was held for the first time in 2022 after COVID 19 delayed the original idea.

The two main teaching unions spearheaded a boycott of the tests in 1993. In a 2008 report evaluating and analysing National Testing, the House of Commons, the Select committee and the Department for Children, Schools and Families registered its concern with the current testing arrangements in state schools. It raised concerns that the "professional abilities of teachers" were under used and that the high stakes nature of the tests led to "phenomena such as teaching to the test, narrowing the curriculum and focusing disproportionate resources on borderline pupils." They further recommended that the multiple uses of National Curriculum assessment – for local accountability, national monitoring, and individual progress measurement – be separated into different forms of assessment. Two leading unions, the NUT and the NAHT (though not the NASUWT), voted to boycott the tests in 2010, which resulted in a quarter of schools not administering the tests. These unions wanted to see the tests replaced by teacher assessment. Parents and children have also proposed the idea of the SATs being scrapped due to causing too much pressure on young children.