At the 2016 ACME
conference, I co-facilitated a workshop with fellow ACME member
Dr Sue Gifford on the aims of the National Curriculum in primary
assessment. The purpose of the workshop was to consider the
influence of assessment in realising the aims of the National
Curriculum and to identify ways in which assessment could be
improved.
Below, I outline some of the discussion points raised by
delegates during the session. You will notice that they highlight
issues of concern in both policy and practice.
Fluency, reasoning and problem solving
Delegates were invited to discuss the extent to which fluency,
reasoning and problem solving were given due prominence in national
publications relating to primary assessment.
There was concern that the 2016 Key Stage 2 tests did not assess
the whole of the curriculum, nor the aims of fluency, reasoning and
problem solving, in a balanced way. The majority of delegates
agreed that future papers should include more questions designed to
assess these areas, and that this should be reflected in the
allocation of marks.
In June 2016, ACME published the report,
Problem solving in mathematics: realising the vision through better
assessment which set out actions for policymakers, awarding
organisations and the mathematics community to improve the quantity
and quality of problem solving in mathematics tests and
assessments. The delegates welcomed the ACME report and hoped that
policy makers and test designers would take note of it.
Increased transparency
Delegates thought that greater transparency and communication
between the test developers and the mathematics teaching community
could be a positive influence on achieving the National Curriculum
aims. Delegates expressed a desire for greater transparency and
greater use of mathematics expertise in the development of official
documents, such as 2016
teacher assessment guidance and exemplification, and were keen
to understand the process through which such material is
published.
Greater analysis
There were suggestions that the testing regime could better
support the realisation of the curriculum aims over time by drawing
on historical experience, for example, in annual publications to
analyse the performance of learners against individual test
items.
It was noted that such an analysis could reference the domains
covered in the
Mathematics Test Framework; including both the parts of the
programme of study covered in the test and the cognitive processes
associated with the measurement of mathematics.
Finally, delegates wanted to see national analysis on the
distribution of the marks across the papers at Key Stage 2.
Anne White is ACME Deputy Chair and a Senior
Adviser at Improve Maths. Find out more about ACME's work
on assessment and accountability
here.
The 2016 ACME conference report can be found here.