Sion Humphreys MSc NPQH DPSE

NAHT – Policy Advisor

e: sion.humphreys@naht.org.uk

t: 01444 472437 / 07595 657805

w: naht.org.uk

The Commission

• Set up by NAHT following consultation with the DfE

• The intention was not to produce a ‘plug in and play’, ‘off the peg’

solution.

• Principles and recommendations emerged.

• Chaired by Lord Stewart Sutherland.

• Members included NAHT officials; serving school leaders;

representatives from ASCL; Teach First, Chartered Institute of

Educational Assessors; National Children’s Bureau and the Institute

of Education.

• Launched on 13/2/14: available on NAHT’s website.

Commission recommendations

• National curriculum tests and teacher assessment (1-6)

• Teacher assessment and moderation (7-9)

• Role of accountability and inspection (10-13)

• Teacher training (14-16)

• The role of information technology (17)

• Going forward (18-21)

National curriculum tests and teacher assessment

• Schools should review their assessment practice against the

principles and checklist set out in this report. Staff should be

involved in the evaluation of existing practice and the

development of a new, rigorous assessment system and

procedures to enable the school to promote high quality

teaching and learning.

• All schools should have clear assessment principles and practices

to which all staff are committed and which are implemented. These

principles should be supported by school governors and accessible

to parents, other stakeholders and the wider school community.

The big questions....

• Do we produce too much data?

• How much of it is information?

• If so, why?

• What is the main focus of assessment?

• Is it sufficiently closely aligned with the core business?

• ‘…they (sub-levels) took on a life of their own and teachers

used them as we now know in a most unreliable way.

Unfortunately, they have become ingrained in practice as much

as anything because they fit nicely into spreadsheets; hence

the pre-occupation with the number of kids on a level/sub-level

rather than information about what children actually know or

need to know. In short, quantitative has won the day over

qualitative. The problem is, most of the numbers are

meaningless...’

•

NAHT and assessment without levels

The NAHT Commission on Assessment - February 2014

Recommendation 4

Pupils should be assessed against objective and agreed criteria rather

than ranked against each other

Recommendation 6

In respect of the National Curriculum, we believe it is valuable – to aid

communication, comparison and benchmarking – for schools to be

using consistent criteria for assessment. To this end, we call upon the

NAHT to develop and promote a set of model assessment criteria

based on the new National Curriculum

13

14

3

Red

14

92

Green

Emerging Fruit

Beware mad numbers! Meaning must be added - be careful when

comparing two numbers that come from different contexts.

Lif

e a

fter

lev

els

– N

AH

T e

dg

e/F

RO

G R

oad

sh

ow

. M

ick W

alk

er

2015

• All those responsible for children’s learning should undertake

rigorous training in formative, diagnostic and summative

assessment, which covers how assessment can be used to support

teaching and learning for all pupils, including those with special

educational needs. The government should provide support and

resources for accredited training for school assessment leads and

schools should make assessment training a priority.

Going forward – medium term

• A system wide review of assessment should be undertaken. This

would help to repair the disjointed nature of assessment through all

ages, 2-19.

A ‘design checklist’

• This is a framework for translating key principles

underpinning assessment into an assessment

model.

• What are the principles?

Underpinning principles for assessment

Assessment is:

• at the heart of teaching and learning;

• fair;

• honest;

• ambitious;

• appropriate;

• consistent;

Assessment outcomes provide meaningful and understandable

information for a range of users and audiences;

Assessment feedback should inspire greater effort .........more can be

achieved.

Design checklist – notes and commentary

• There is a need to translate the curriculum into ‘discrete, tangible

statements of attainment’. These will be assessment criteria. NAHT

is commissioning a model document to avoid too much variation.

• A ‘hierarchy of expectations’ based on the school year. However,

children progress at different rates and this must be reflected in a

‘hierarchy of expectations.’

• An assumption of frequent formal assessment, perhaps termly and

against the year’s criteria.

• Criteria should be capable of being combined into qualitative

statement of a pupil’s achievements. A qualitative summary may

also be necessary. The ‘binary’ ‘yes/no’ approach is too simplistic

and the Commission favours a three phase judgement of:

• Working towards (or ‘emerging’ or ‘developing’)

• Meeting (or ‘mastered’; ‘confident’; ‘secure’; ‘expected’)

• Exceeded.

• Moderation practice will depend on the size and circumstances of

the school. Large schools may be able to sustain an internal model.

• However, all schools should commit to a proportion of external

moderation each year.

Content of the

curriculum is

taken from the

school’s

curriculum which

is matched to the

New National

Curriculum (NNC)

Any gaps between

the school

curriculum and the

NNC must be filled

The curriculum

content will reflect

the entire year’s

delivery

Term one

The content here is driven by

the topic or theme used to

deliver the curriculum and

provide assessment

opportunities

Term two

Again, the content is driven

by the theme used to deliver

the curriculum

Term three

Again, the content is driven

by the topic or theme. At the

end of the year, the entire

curriculum for that year will

have been covered

Assessment criteria are

taken from the NNC

Key Performance Indicators

(KPIs) describe a group of

individual criteria

Separate KPIs make up the end of year

Performance Standards (PS), that is the expected

performance at the end of the year and against

which assessments are made at the end of the year

An individual pupil’s work can be kept

to exemplify attainment against the

KPI and PS. This can be known as the

exemplification of performance. This

work should be annotated to highlight

the achievement

From individual pupil’s work the

school can create a standards file

showing achievement in all subjects

at each level. This will create a

benchmark for assessment purposes

in future years

The standards file can be used as

and when necessary to take part in

cross school moderation activities,

when the standards can be agreed or

altered according to decisions at the

moderation

Term one

KPIs clearly

stated for each

topic or theme

Term two

KPIs clearly

stated for each

topic or theme

Term three

KPIs clearly

stated for each

topic or theme

National and school curriculum - measuring and recording progress across key stages – NAHT assessment model

22

Content of the curriculum is taken

from the school’s curriculum which

is matched to the New National

Curriculum (NNC)

Any gaps between the school

curriculum and the NNC must be

filled

The curriculum content will reflect

the entire year’s delivery

-

Assessment criteria are taken from

the NNC

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

describe a group of individual

criteria

National and school curriculum - measuring and recording progress across key stages NAHT assessment model

Term three

Again, the content is driven by the

topic or theme. At the end of the

year, the entire curriculum for that

year will have been covered

Term three

KPIs clearly stated

for each topic or

theme

Term one

The content here is driven by the

topic or theme used to deliver the

curriculum and provide

assessment opportunities

Term one

KPIs clearly stated

for each topic or

theme

Term two

Again, the content is driven by the

theme used to deliver the

curriculum

Term two

KPIs clearly stated

for each topic or

theme

25

Separate KPIs make up the end of year Performance Standards (PS), that

is the expected performance at the end of the year and against which

assessments are made at the end of the year

An individual pupil’s work can be kept to exemplify attainment against

the KPI and PS. This can be known as the exemplification of

performance. This work should be annotated to highlight the

achievement

From individual pupil’s work the school can

create a standards file showing achievement

in all subjects at each level. This will create a

benchmark for assessment purposes in

future years

The standards file can be used as and when

necessary to take part in cross school

moderation activities, when the standards

can be agreed or altered according to

decisions at the moderation

Extract from the year 1 programme of study

Reading – word reading

Statutory requirements

Pupils should be taught to:

• apply phonic knowledge and skills as the route to decode words

• respond speedily with the correct sound to graphemes (letters or groups of letters) for

all 40+ phonemes, including, where applicable, alternative sounds for graphemes

• read accurately by blending sounds in unfamiliar words containing GPCs that have

been taught

• read common exception words, noting unusual correspondences between spelling

and sound and where these occur in the word

• read words containing taught GPCs and –s, –es, –ing, –ed, –er and –est endings

• read other words of more than one syllable that contain taught GPCs

• read words with contractions [for example, I’m, I’ll, we’ll], and understand that the

apostrophe represents the omitted letter(s)

• read aloud accurately books that are consistent with their developing phonic

knowledge and that do not require them to use other strategies to work out words

• re-read these books to build up their fluency and confidence in word reading.

The National Curriculum in England Framework Document September 2013 . English Page 21

26

Extract from the year 1 programme of study

Reading – word reading

Statutory requirements

Pupils should be taught to:

• apply phonic knowledge and skills as the route to decode words

• respond speedily with the correct sound to graphemes (letters or groups of letters) for all

40+ phonemes, including, where applicable, alternative sounds for graphemes

• read accurately by blending sounds in unfamiliar words containing GPCs that have been

taught

• read common exception words, noting unusual correspondences between spelling and sound

and where these occur in the word

• read words containing taught GPCs and –s, –es, –ing, –ed, –er and –est endings

• read other words of more than one syllable that contain taught GPCs

• read words with contractions [for example, I’m, I’ll, we’ll], and understand that the apostrophe

represents the omitted letter(s)

• read aloud accurately books that are consistent with their developing phonic knowledge

and that do not require them to use other strategies to work out words

• re-read these books to build up their fluency and confidence in word reading.

Then Reading – Comprehension….

27

Key performance indicators

28

Responds speedily with the correct sound to

graphemes (letters or groups of letters) for all

40+ phonemes, including, where applicable,

alternative sounds for graphemes.

Reads accurately by blending sounds in

unfamiliar words.

Reads common exception words.

Reads aloud accurately books that are

consistent with their developing phonic

knowledge and that do not require them to

use other strategies to work out words.

Develops pleasure in reading, motivation to

read, vocabulary and understanding by:

1.listening to and discussing a wide range of

poems, stories and non-fiction at a level

beyond that at which they can read

independently;

With reference to the KPIs:

By the end of Y1 a child should be able to read

all common graphemes and be able to read

unfamiliar words containing these graphemes,

accurately and without undue hesitation, by

sounding them out in books that are matched

closely to the level of word reading knowledge.

A child should be able to read many common

words containing GPCs taught so far, such as

shout, hand, stop, or dream, without needing to

blend the sounds out loud first. Reading of

common exception words, such as you, could,

many, or people, should be secure meaning a

child can read them easily and automatically.

A child can read words with suffixes with support

to build on the root words that can be read

already.

Performance standard

National and school curriculum - measuring and recording progress across key stages – NAHT assessment model

29

Reporting progress: numerical reporting

1. Is working towards…

2. Has met the expected standard for year…

3. Has exceeded…

Align with school assessment framework

30 Recording performance using KPIs

There are known knowns.

These are things we know that

we know. There are known

unknowns. That is to say, there

are things that we know we

don't know. But there are also

unknown unknowns. There are

things we don't know we don't

know.

Donald Rumsfeld

Known unknowns......................

• The relationship with Performance Descriptors and the ‘national

standard’

• Mastery

• An opportunity to make transition work

https://www.ncetm.org.uk/public/files/19990433/Developing_mas

tery_in_mathematics_october_2014.pdf

• Teachers reinforce an expectation that all pupils are capable of

achieving high standards in mathematics. The large majority of

pupils progress through the curriculum content at the same pace.

• Differentiation is achieved by emphasising deep knowledge and

through individual support and intervention.

• Teaching is underpinned by methodical curriculum design and

supported by carefully crafted lessons and resources to foster deep

conceptual and procedural knowledge.

• Practice and consolidation play a central role. Carefully designed

variation within this builds fluency and understanding of underlying

mathematical concepts in tandem.

• Teachers use precise questioning in class to test conceptual and

procedural knowledge, and assess pupils regularly to identify those

requiring intervention, so that all pupils keep up.