Level best? Levels of attainment in national curriculum assessment

Abstract

It is now over 13 years since the Task Group on Assessment and Testing (TGAT) published its proposals for a framework for the reporting of national curriculum assessment results. Given the developments that have taken place over the intervening years, it is remarkable how well this document stands up to re-reading today. However, while the principles underpinning the report are still sound, the recommendations – perhaps inevitably – were not implemented in a coherent way. As the context of education policy has changed, these incoherencies have become magnified. It has become clear that policy-makers have never really understood the nature of the levels of attainment in the national curriculum. The result is that current policy has driven teachers and schools in ways that are antithetical to high-quality teaching and learning. In some senses this is understandable, as the rationale for the TGAT proposals and the empirical evidence underpinning them has never been fully spelled out. Given the uses that are currently being made of national curriculum test results, it is, however, essential to understand what national curriculum assessment can – and more importantly, cannot – deliver. Written for both practitioners and policy-makers, the purpose of this book is to explain: • why the TGAT proposals were framed in the way they were • the differences between what was proposed and what was implemented • the limitations of the current system, and what can be done about them.

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