Constant testing

[Amber]

The push towards constant testing goes back a long way; for example in 1997, David Blunkett said (Schools White Paper) :

We already hold much more comprehensive data than is held in other countries..We will publish more such data than ever before.

The amount of data he was boasting about would seem trivial now - Michael Gove made no apologies in 2014 for this:

The strongest form of accountability comes from the data generated by externally set and marked tests and the judgements made by expert inspectors... Parents who were in the past assured in vague airy and amiable terms that their child was a nice lad and doing perfectly well now have hard data to help them support their child’s performance. They know if their child is underperforming expectations, and in what way.

And if you think that teachers share this view, check this out - one of the Government's own studies - a survey of teachers carried out by the DfE in 2015 .

..many respondents told us that the way data entry and management was done in their school was burdensome and, in many cases, unnecessary. They reported spending hours recording data on multiple programmes, analysing, and having to report in different ways for different audiences.

Fear not though, because Nicky Morgan has a solution:

We will establish a data management panel, to work with teachers and others to come up with principles for good in-school data management, including how pupil progress is monitored.

Not sure where she is at with this just now, but I am sure your children's best interests are right at the heart of the mission statement of the data-management panel.

Interestingly, that report on teacher workload contains the word 'child' or 'children' 6 times, and the word 'data' 40 times.

So best of luck Fairyelephant, but the phrase 'spitting in the wind' comes to mind, I'm afraid.

[PurpleDuck]

Yes - ultimately they need to sit paper tests for GCSE/A level but many unis increasingly use coursework assignments.

Sorry if this is a silly question, but are coursework assignments the same as homework? From DS's Options brochure, only his History GCSE will include a 25% of a mark for a project of some description, all other subjects' grades are supposed to be based just on exams... So now I don't know whether I'm missing something, or whether I should be concerned about the lack of coursework, if that's what unis are looking at!

[Guest55]

No - I meant more degrees are being assessed by coursework which is ironic when school exams are removing it!

[PurpleDuck]

No - I meant more degrees are being assessed by coursework which is ironic when school exams are removing it!

Thank you, I understand now. I misinterpreted it as unis paying more attention to school coursework rather than exam results. Good job I'm not doing any comprehension tests...

[Tolstoy]

No - I meant more degrees are being assessed by coursework which is ironic when school exams are removing it!

Very interesting as my eldest only recently mentioned that his tutors had said his Btec course prepared them better for degrees than A'levels. Both OH and I were surprised but this would explain it. Mmmh suspect an apology is in order

[mystery]

My DD (year 9) seems to have constant tests. The week before half term, last week and part of this week she has had mid year and end of module tests. There will be more end of module tests at the end of term. The amount of testing at her school seems to be more than at DS's (year eight) school. On the plus side her level of anxiety about tests has plummeted (year 7 was tricky) and she always does well, but on the negative side the constant testing seems to suck the joy out of learning for her.
Is this just par for the course for some schools, or should I be concerned?

Hard to say without understanding what proportion of lessons are tests.

As you say, some pluses - great to have banished test anxiety. But shame if the testing is too much and sucks out the joy.

Continuously assessed degrees by coursework - yuck - way too much work and rather like the Open University and open for cheating too. Far rather have dollops of exams from time to time with an appropriate proportion of marks given to a relevant project which develops and tests skills in a way that could not be done through exams.