§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education and Skills (Mr. Stephen Twigg)The trial of the new assessment arrangement at key stage 1 has now concluded and a decision about extending the new arrangements to all schools has been made.
In 2003, we asked the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) to trial an approach that placed more emphasis on teacher assessment and national reporting of teacher assessment levels. Schools taking part in the trial administered the national curriculum tasks and tests in reading, writing and mathematics and the outcomes of these, plus all the evidence from work done throughout the year, were used by teachers to make judgments about children's progress in each subject, which were reported to parents and LEAs.
An independent evaluation of the new arrangements was carried out by Leeds university on behalf of the QCA. The evaluation proved favourable and we have accepted the QCA's recommendation to extend the new arrangements to all schools at key stage 1 from the current academic year.