Call to scrap tests for under-16s The national exams sat by under-16s in Engl

[Rich Gibson <rgibson@pipeline.com>]

> BBC NEWS
>
> Call to scrap tests for under-16s
> The national exams sat by under-16s in England's 
> schools should be scrapped, a teaching standards watchdog has urged.
>
> The General Teaching Council (GTC) believes the 
> tests are failing to raise standards and placing 
> "added stress" on pupils, teachers and parents.
>
> Instead of tests at seven, 11 and 14, the GTC 
> said standards could be checked by monitoring a sample of pupils.
>
> But the Department for Education said parents 
> valued the information gleaned from tests and they would remain.
>
> League tables
>
> According to the GTC, children face about 70 
> tests or exams during their school lives.
>
> Currently, every child in England takes national 
> curriculum tests, often known as standard 
> assessment tests (Sats), at the ages of seven, 
> 11 and 14, before they sit GCSE and A-Level examinations.
>
> Keith Bartley, chief executive of the GTC, said: 
> "We need to trust teachers more and let them do what they are trained for."
>
> He said employers "want to see better skilled youngsters".
>
> "They are not concerned about how they gained 
> those skills or what results they got in a test when they were seven."
>
> Earlier this year the head of the exams 
> authority also suggested samples of pupils, 
> rather than all pupils, could be tested to check standards in England.
>
> However, Ken Boston, chief executive of the 
> Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, said 
> Sats should stay for the time being, but could 
> eventually be replaced by progress-testing.
>
> There are all sorts of malign effects from the current testing regime
> John Bangs,
> National Union of Teachers
>
> The General Teaching Council, which is an 
> independent regulatory body working to promote 
> better standards of teaching, maintains testing 
> a sample of children, rather than every child, 
> would help ease pressure on them.
>
> Adopting such a system would also allow teachers 
> to assess progress by setting tests tailored to the needs of their pupils.
>
> The council says Sats are defended because they 
> are as much about the position obtained by 
> schools in performance tables on the back of the results.
>
> The GTC is hoping that an inquiry by the 
> education select committee will persuade the 
> government to drop its support for national testing.
>
> 'Enormous pressure'
>
> An end to national testing would find favour 
> with many teachers, who have long argued that 
> Sats and performance tables encourage teaching simply on how to pass tests.
>
> John Bangs, head of education at the National 
> Union of Teachers, said: "There are all sorts of 
> malign effects from the current testing regime.
>
> "There is enormous pressure on youngsters and 
> there's a lot of training to take the tests.
>
> "Schools themselves feel under enormous pressure 
> because they are judged by the test results in a 
> very crude way in the school performance tables."
>
> Parents need and greatly value the information 
> they get from performance tables
> Department of Education spokesperson
>
> Shadow education secretary David Willetts said 
> the Tories supported national examinations as a 
> "tried and tested" method to identify standards.
>
> But he said it was important to ensure teaching 
> was not just focused on raising a school's league table position.
>
> The Campaign for Real Education - set up to 
> press for higher standards - also said it continued to back tests.
>
> "On the whole children will take tests in their 
> stride," said the group's Katie Ivens.
>
> The Department for Education said testing and 
> performance tables were accountability measures 
> "essential to extending and maintaining" improvements in standards.
>
> A spokeswoman said: "Parents need and greatly 
> value the information they get from performance tables."
>
> However, the government did announce in January 
> that a pilot scheme would examine whether more 
> frequent assessments could replace fixed testing.
>
> Tests would be taken when teachers thought children were ready.
> Story from BBC NEWS:
> http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/education/6738063.stm
>
> Published: 2007/06/10 12:17:08 GMT
>
> © BBC MMVII