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The GTC has advised the Education and Skills Select Committee that the current testing regime needs to be overhauled. In its advice to the select committee, the GTC has proposed that Key Stage tests should be replaced with a nationally devised bank of tests to be used when the teacher judges that pupils are ready to take them. This would lead to an increased investment in teachers' assessment skills, with Government trusting teachers' professional judgment to assess pupils' progress.
The GTC also wants to see an increased focus on assessment for learning, with teachers developing and using assessment and moderation methods which would lead to a richer and better informed dialogue between the school and parents. This would enable parents to be kept fully and regularly informed about their child's progress and attainment. Finally, the GTC has proposed that a system of cohort sampling could be introduced to monitor national standards. Instead of testing all pupils, just a limited number of pupils in a limited number of schools would be tested, in order to collect data about national
As part of its advice, the GTC has commissioned a qualitative study of parents' views on assessment, carried out by the British Market Research Bureau (BMRB) in March 2007. As part of the study, many parents said they consider that too much time is being spent on preparing pupils for external tests, sometimes to the detriment of their academic achievement. They also believe test scores are often inadequately explained and that end of term reports contain generic phrases which are not tailored to the individual child. Some parents prefer to receive more face-to-face feedback from teachers and say they want assessment to be used to alert them to problem areas in order to take steps to remedy them. The research was carried out in with three workshops, comprising a total of 36 parents, conducted in London and Birmingham.
Download a podcast of the GTC's Chief Executive, Keith Bartley, with the Guardian website on June 11th 2007.
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