NIL SATis - Nothing is enough

Why are we testing children so much? It is time once again for SATs and by now these children have already been subjected to Baseline assessment, Phonic Screening, Key Stage 1 SATs, Multiplication Tables Check, and some might be doing the 11 plus. Who are all these tests for? There have often been reports from secondary schools suggesting that SATs testing in primary schools is inaccurate and unhelpful in creating a profile for an individual child which they are then required to use to project a child's outcomes at 16. Do they enhance children's opportunities to learn and what do they tell us about children? A test is simply a snapshot at a particular moment in a child's life. This will only tell you about one small aspect of a child's development and growth and can't show how far knowledge and skill are embedded in the individual which is presumably why we're doing it. Testing has a place in the classroom. It helps to inform the teacher but this is simply one, quite transitory, aspect of the whole child. It should not be the only way of measuring progress made by children in primary schools. For a more complete assessment of how children grow and develop we must include the views of those involved: the children, their parents and their teachers. Progress in young children’s learning can't always be set out in steps denoting a smooth incremental progression. One step may often follow another but sometimes we need to go back over things, to circle round and approach it from a different angle. Different experiences may well provoke other levels of understanding or reinforce earlier understanding. The thread of ideas must be drawn out of experience as a single thread is drawn out of a multi hued and textured cloth. Assessment needs to acknowledge the complexity of this cloth and the fact that young children are building up a network of understanding which may not be immediately observable or evidenced and this is best done by teachers and parents alongside the self assessments of the children themselves and we must always remind ourselves that children are not empty vessels waiting to be filled, that entirely accurate assessment is probably impossible and we need to be appropriately modest and respectful of the human lives we are presuming to assess. Our consideration of progress must include how the child functions in life. It is not enough to show potential for learning at the age of four and to pass a test at the age of eleven. The possession of knowledge and skill is only a beginning, it is what a child does with that knowledge and skill that matters more. Progress must be related to the child as a whole. We must learn to assess what we value and not simply value what is easy to assess.

This video from More Than A Score shows how children feel about SATs