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The General Teaching Council recently gave oral evidence to an inquiry on assessment which is being conducted by the Select Committee for Children, Schools and Families.
Chief Executive Keith Bartley told members of the House of Commons Children, Schools and Families Select Committee that the testing and assessment system holds too many teachers back from doing an exceptional job. In an oral evidence session at Westminster on Monday 14 January, Keith outlined the kind of assessment system the country needs – one that supports learning and promotes higher achievement. The many purposes for individual tests are used means that they subvert part of the original purpose of evaluating learning, and result in high stakes pressure on schools and children, he told MPs.
The other witnesses –Dr Mary Bousted of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, Mick Brookes of National Association of Head Teachers and Brian Lightman of the Association of School and College Leaders– agreed with Keith that the multiplicity of tests distorts outcomes and narrows the curriculum. Keith outlined the GTC’s alternative – teacher assessment should take a greater mainstream role with an entitlement and access to training; we need clearer and better way of informing parents about schools and pupil achievement; and we should end universal testing for national monitoring. Instead, he said that cohort sampling should be introduced. This would, he said, turn testing and assessment about so that it serves pupil learning, not the system itself.
Keith outlined to the Committee the GTC’s research that found parents value most highly the kind of information that is based on an interaction between the teacher and the individual child. A MORI poll of parents, commissioned by the GTC, showed that parents find performance tables confusing and they fail to tell them whether a school had high aspirations for its pupils or the capability to enable them to enjoy, feel safe and achieve.
In response to questioning, Keith stated asserted that assessment for learning and personalised learning are at the heart of education – provided education is seen as an exploration by pupils and teachers, not a series of target to be met at all costs. He stressed the central importance of investing in teachers’ professional development, giving the example that we are about to lose the generation of teachers who trained in skills for teaching pupils with special educational needs – skills that all teachers now need.
The Committee asked Keith whether it was impossible to bring passion back into teaching. Is teaching to the test inevitable? Keith’s reply was that it was not impossible, “I just think that teachers have to be absolutely exceptional to be able to flourish in our current system.” The Teacher Learning Academy has numerous examples of teachers innovating in their classrooms, and schools and teachers need permission to innovate and to give pupils the confidence to explore by learning.
The Children, Schools and Families Select Committee will continue to take evidence on testing and assessment and will publish its report and recommendations to Government.
