KS1 Assessment ‘Clarification’ Webinar – February 2016

Some questions and clarification from today’s KS1 assessment webinar. These are my notes and I did my best to keep up with the questions and answers but they might not be 100% accurate so the usual disclaimer about taking them in that spirit and please refer to the DfE for any further clarification on anything controversial!

Exemplification Materials

  • A key message that the exemplification materials are ‘a guide’ to support children in making the judgements and not something statutory. There is no requirement for tick sheets. Ultimately, the relationship between test and TA hasn’t changed and this will be a teacher judgement. (This does appear to be at odds to the ‘secure fit’ statement and sounds more like the best fit world that we have just left behind?).
  • Reiteration that individual pieces of work should not be assessed using the interim frameworks. The interim frameworks should be used to assess the ‘body of evidence’, rather than individual pieces of work. This is a key message at the top of the interim framework documents.
  • Clarification on the ‘Some, Many, Most’ terminology within the Interim Frameworks.

‘Most of the time’ – see it regularly, usually correct, generally speaking is accurate with occasional errors.

‘Some of the time’– means seeing it now, occasionallybut is not secure, consistent or frequent.

‘Many’ is ‘somewhere in between’ the two above statements and is a matter for professional judgement and will not be defined by a number.

TESTS

  • The KS1 tests still have to be taken in May, despite the deadline for teacher assessment date being pushed back.
  • KS1 tests can be administered more flexibly in small groups and at different times in the day but the general rule of thumb is that each paper should be administered on one day.
  • There is no requirement to cover all displays however schools should ensure that they don’t put children at an unfair advantage.
  • Schools will not be expected to report test outcomes to parents – it will only be Teacher Assessment outcomes that will be required to be published. This is as previous years.
  • Readers can be used within the GPS test if this is part of ‘normal classroom practice’ and it doesn’t put anyone at an unfair advantage. Whole class reading of tests isn’t really acceptable.
  • Children working below the standard of the tests should not sit them.
  • There is no strict time limit on the length of the tests. Teachers should use their professional judgement on how long children need to show in the test what they are capable of doing. Rest breaks and the use ofscribesmay also be used (if this is part of normal classroom practice) and there is no requirement for reporting or requesting these access arrangements (unlike KS2).
  • KS1 tests should inform the Teacher Assessment judgement, not be the ultimate measure.
  • Conversion tables for scaled scores will be published on the 3rd of June. These will be set against the national standard and not calculated as any average of children’s achievement on tests.

MODERATION

LAs will be informing schools that will receive a moderation visit on or after the 20th of May either the afternoon before or on the morning of a moderation visit.

  • Moderators will choose the specific children that will be moderated either before or at their moderation visit.
  • Moderation will now take place before data is submitted (as previous) so that moderation should inform the final data that is submitted on the 30th of June. Schools will be expected to have data on judgements available for moderators before the 30th of June, should they receive a moderation visit.
  • Moderators will not be involved in moderating judgements of children working at pre-key stage standards (old P-Scales). These should be moderated locally by either clusters or between schools.
  • There was a mention of ‘5 or 6 piecesof work’ as a reasonable evidence base to make a judgement from.
  • The evidence base for each child may vary – there is no pre-requisite for there to be the same pieces of work for every child.
  • STA will be sampling 48 (a third) of local authorities to QA the moderation process across the UK this year.
  • Children should be able to spell in context not just in spelling tests although the spelling test can provide useful evidence as to whether children can spell at the expected standard.
  • Childrendo notneed to join their handwriting to be awarded the ‘expected standard’.

SCHOOLS INVOLVED IN THE EARLY ADMINISTRATION OF TESTS

  • Emails have already been sent out to confirm those schools who are being asked to take one of the KS1 tests early for sampling purposes in April. If you haven’t heard, you’re in the clear! If you do administer these tests in April, you should still administer the other 2 in May.
  • Approximately 2200 schools (30,000 pupils per subject) have been chosen for the early KS1 test exercise.