6th July 2017 1:00
By Blue Tutors
SATs (Standard Assessment Tests) are taken by Year2 and final year primary school students across the UK to test their performance in the national curriculum. Changed since last year to reflect the new primary school curriculum introduced in 2014, the ‘new’ SATs cover three areas: reading, maths, and writing (spelling, grammar and punctuation). Last year’s results were difficult to interpret, having done away with the previous discretised marks for a point based system where 100 is the passing mark. This year, however, with historical data to compare with, changes in performance over the last year can be not only monitored but quantified.
The first, possibly most alarming data to surface was that this year’s results showed almost 4 in 10 students had not reached the required level by the end of primary school. This is however an improvement on last year of almost 15% (8 percentage points) as last year only just over half of students managed to reach the target in all three areas, known as the “three Rs”. The individual success rates in maths and reading were both up by 5 % points and writing success rates have increased to over three quarters of pupils.
But what does that actually mean? On the face of it, it appears that having spent just one year longer in the new, tougher primary school curriculum has yielded large improvements in performance. In reality, teachers have had an additional year to prepare students with the new curriculum and this year have a much better idea of the format and style of the new test so can more appropriately prepare students for testing. Improvements in test scores may therefore not be due to a better overall standard but to better preparation for this specific exam. Either way, it is definitely worrying that the way the new “knowledge-rich curriculum” is assessed telling 39% of 11 year olds they are not ready to start secondary in the autumn, and telling their schools they have failed them, a rather demotivating message to take away for all involved. The only positive from this is that an upward trend appears to validate the government’s decision to ‘toughen up’ primary school education.
The assessment itself has come under heavy criticism from teachers after scripts were returned. Teachers took to twitter with the handle #SATsshambles to complain about the inconsistent and excessively harsh marking. One recurring issue was that of punctuation, with commas and semi-colons that were slightly misshapen, too big or a millimetre out of place not given the mark despite the student evidently knowing how to use the punctuation in question. Correct answers that strayed very slightly outside the allocated box were also given zero marks. The main frustration was the lack of consistency between markers for the same ‘errors’, leaving some students given the benefit of the doubt and some penalised for untidy penmanship. Pearson, who administer the exams, have stated that "marking quality is extremely important and is something we monitor continuously” and that the fairness of marking is ensured by a robust review process.
The second thing to come from this year’s scores, which was not possible last year, is that each school has been ranked on its improvement from last year’s scores. This is done despite the fact that it is an entirely different cohort of students, with a different level of ability to start with, taking the tests. The National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) has warned parents that this data alone does not reflect the quality of schools and is definitely not a good indication of ‘fit’ with a student. NAHT has gone so far as to accuse the government of manipulating pass rates and grade boundaries to “justify political agendas”. Data mapping the results of examinations with general elections shows a small lift or dip in results just before and after the elections, which they are claiming was done deliberately to emphasise the importance manifesto promises.
All in all, the improvement in scores from last year has not necessarily mean a more positive experience for the students who took them, and the looming league tables are an additional stress on schools.