Should SATs and League Tables be scrapped?

There is also possibly another side to this issue in that the tests themselves cause pressure enough to both students and teachers alike but also that we can not forget the purpose of these tests, aside from measuring ability, is the focus on their results with reference to league tables. There is a comment by a parent on the TES website (September 21st,2002) which tells how prior to the tests her seven year old was told by their Head teacher that ‘these tests were among some of the most important tests that you will ever take and will affect the rest of your life’.  If these tests are also an indication of the teaching standards within the school

surely putting pressure like that on a child lets down all the values that the teaching profession is meant to stand for.  Real education is being neglected in favour of a drilling culture in order to pass the test.  One teacher comments on the TES website (21st September 2002) ‘we stop educating them, and simply just coach them for the test.’ which I feel is an opinion shared by many primary teachers.

So, whilst SATs has the one aim of highlighting learning needs and helps focus on areas needing further work so providing indicators to the teacher, there is this other important fact that they are also a measure of teacher or school ability and the audience for whom this information is for, leaves me to feel that there is a conflict of interest here, because the two are not comparable to measure in this way and do not necessarily run hand in hand.

There has been much publicity over recent years questioning the accuracy and value of league tables.  It would appear from indicators in the press that cheating to produce better marks is more widespread than people think.  There are questions to be raised over the test conditions, which are not it would seem always uniform.  There have been reports where wall displays in the classroom aid children with their answers, teachers giving extra time, amending answers and so on.  This leads to results, which do not reflect a true picture of the standard across the board.  Taking this further imagine a class of poor academic ability, large numbers of special needs children, even language barriers as in some areas of the country, these results will come out poor but are not necessarily any reflection on the

teaching ability or school.  To me this seems such a huge waste of teaching time and emotional energy for teachers and children that characterises SATs.  Many people in the teaching profession would argue that SATs are just about government targets.  It could well be argued here that the problem is not the SATs at all; the problem is the focus that teachers have to put on them, in order to achieve results for the league tables.  The government pretends that SATs are just a snapshot of school performance, yet politicians demand ever-improving results.  Over the last seven years since the tests were introduced, Britain has seen a rise in standards, which other countries fail to match. SATs allow the government to pat itself on the back.  Research from the Independent National Foundation for Educational Research however point towards a conclusion simply that children are being coached more effectively in the classroom to reach the targets for SATs tests.

It must be said that all schools should meet standard requirements, and of course there are some positive values to standardising the education system.  It is a fair comment made by many parents and the government that all schools like any other sector should meet a standard requirement and we deserve to know which ones are not.  However the issue is again that the SATs test is not the best indicator for this.  Unlike under the Liberal Democrat policy that wish to bring in a scaffolding examination structure, our system ultimately ends in one test, and we do need to prepare children for this.  Tests in general are valuable tools, preparing children to learn and go over information and prepare

for examinations, which they will take in the future.  Tests are needed as indicators and in the outside world children will meet competition in test form at some stage, there is no doubt about this.  What is being argued by the teaching world and here is that SATs are not valuable tests to indicate what we need to know.  So where do we find a happy medium?

 Wales has certainly looked at these issues and has taken the lead to abolish statutory testing in favour of measuring achievement at KS1 solely by teacher assessment.  The results this year showed only a small percentage change from those measured last year by a combination of teacher assessment and tests.   It is along these lines that the Liberal Democrat reforms aim to go.  In place of national tests at 7, 11 and 14, parents would be given much more detailed end of year reports.  The information contained in these reports as well as the Childs year long progress, would also give details of the schools performance partly based on annual visits by local authority inspectors.  School league tables would be replaced by testing sample groups of pupils to check whether there were standard issues needing attention.  The Liberal Democrats have loosely modelled their reforms on Scandinavian countries that operate their education system in the above way.   Other countries too seem to favour this system, which maintains standards but focuses on the values of what teaching is about.  In Australia for example primary school children sit basic skills tests at ages 8,9, 10 and 11. There is no pressure on the children; the idea of the test is to

assess the child’s ability, yes, but also to help the education department find the correct levels and methods for teaching.

What conclusions can we make from this; well as a parent I am not concerned with SATs.  I am concerned that my child spends their time at school with a feeling of self worth, confidence and excitement at the learning ahead of him.  I certainly would not want him to feel pressured and stressed by the age of five and a half to perform well in a test, and I am sure that this is a view felt by many other parents.  This does not mean that there is no value in tests, as I have explored they are valuable tools used in the right situations. I would argue  that the purpose of assessment is to improve standards, not merely to measure them.  Being objective I think that I would rather have an overview of my child’s progress done throughout the year and which would certainly include in class testing results, rather than an indication by SATs alone of how they performed in a particular test on a particular day as their standard of assessment and the schools.  There must be regulation of teaching and schools, this is not in question and as a parent I expect this too, but the method which we are using at present seems to provide results which we can not truly rely on and which ultimately seem to have a damaging effect on pupils and teachers alike.  Maybe we need to look into finding more suitable methods such as some which I have discussed and get rid of these early tests, to give children a well balanced education where the focus is not on failing or achieving but learning.