Assessment and Testing (Hansard, 1 July 1994)

§ Mr. Patten

High educational standards are of crucial importance for our children and to improve our international competitiveness. The chairman of the School Curriculum and Assessment Authority, Sir Ron Dearing, has confirmed that the tests are educationally sound and the independent school inspectorate, Ofsted, has found that they are raising standards. The Government are determined that these benefits should be extended to all state schools in 1995. To that end, I propose to introduce next year a system of external marking and, where appropriate, additional supply cover. These arrangements will ensure that the tests are marked to tough and objective standards by outside agencies and that the results are made available quickly.

The 1995 assessment and testing arrangements

Detailed proposals for assessing and testing seven, 11 and 14-year-olds next year are set out in a consultation 747W document to be published today. My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Wales is making parallel and appropriate arrangements. We shall continue with mandatory tests for seven and 14-year-olds and, as already announced, introduce mandatory national tests for 11-year-olds following this summer's large-scale pilot. As an integral part of these arrangements, teachers will also make their own assessment of pupils' progress in English, mathematics and science to set alongside the test results.

The tests focus on the vital basics of English, mathematics and science and are therefore unaffected by changes to the curriculum. There has been extensive teacher involvement in their development, which will ensure that the tests are fair and appropriate for all pupils, while remaining rigorous.

Teachers' work load

In order to meet concerns about work load, the tests have already been streamlined. The time taken up by testing was halved in 1994 compared with the year before and the marking and administration were greatly

However, I intend to take more radical action. I propose to: introduce external marking for the tests of 11 and 14-year-olds. fund supply cover for teachers of seven-year-olds engaged on administering tests and for any teachers of 11 and 14-year-olds responsible for administering practical classroom tests to the least able pupils in these age groups; end mandatory external audit of teachers' own assessments of classroom work—although audit of teachers' marking of the English and mathematics tests for seven-year olds will continue.

Taken together, these steps mean that there can be no possible defensible case for industrial action against the tests. The ending of mandatory audit of teachers' own assessments places increased reliance on their professional judgment so far as their own direct area of responsibility is concerned. Although many more schools carried out the tests this year, a substantial number did not, allegedly on the grounds that they involved excessive work load. The arrangements for external marking and supply cover will now remove any vestige of a case on work load grounds for not carrying out the tests in 1995. Parents will not understand if, with no plausible argument based on work load, the demonstrable benefits of testing are denied to pupils because of ideological opposition by some teachers who refuse, in clear breach of their contractual duties, to simply hand out papers and invigilate examinations.

Accountability

A key function of the assessments and tests is to promote accountability to parents. In line with the parents charter, schools will therefore be required to report children's results to parents and to publish the school's overall results in all prospectuses and governers' annual reports. The new arrangements will ensure that schools receive results of their pupils' performance in the tests promptly. The results of seven and 14-year-olds will not be included in school performance tables. It remains the Government's policy that results of 11-year-olds should be included once the tests are established.

Results in national curriculum assessments provide an objective and reliable measure of a school's performance. That is the kind of hard information that I need when considering how to allocate scarce public resources. The results also complement the detailed published Ofsted 748W reports on individual schools. If they are not available, I shall have to discuss with Her Majesty's chief inspector of schools the future format and pattern of inspections.

This is a package designed to raise standards. It will ensure that all pupils are tested in the basics at seven, 11 and 14. It will ensure that tests are marked objectively and rigorously. It will ensure that parents receive prompt and robust information about the strengths and weaknesses of their children's performance.