Commenting on the publication of the Department for Education’s
response to the Teacher Workload Advisory Group report on
data,Dr Mary Bousted, Joint General Secretary of the
National Education Union, said:
“There are several good things in this report, but it leaves
major problems in place.
“The working group understands the pressures associated with data
collection and management. It makes recommendations which will be
well-received in schools: teachers will welcome the statement
that pay progression should not be dependent on quantitative
assessment metrics, such as test outcomes; reducing the frequency
of in-school assessment will benefit teachers and pupils alike.
“However, in some respects, the report avoids the issues. The
incessant pressures of data collection in school stem from the
basic design of our assessment system. The high value placed on
SATs results and Progress 8 scores makes it inevitable that
schools will search for ways to boost their performance against a
narrow range of metrics. The experience of the last few years
tell us that, despite DfE recommendations to the contrary,
schools will persist in practices which increase workload,
because the risks of failure - measured in test scores - have
become so high. Our assessment system needs a deeper rethinking
than this report provides.
“The National Education Union is also concerned about the
report’s tendency to see more use of online testing as the answer
to problems of assessment workload. Close and supportive
assessment of individual pupils’ learning is central to a
teacher’s work: online tests have their place, but to use them as
a quick fix for the deep-seated problems of our assessment system
may worsen, not improve, the quality of education.”
