Question about secondary school assessments, KS3, CATS and that sort of thing

[BigBoobiedBertha]

My DS1 started secondary in September and brought home a sort of report today that showed his CAT scores, his effort and attainment so far and his target KS3 scores (presumably predictions rather than what he is aiming for).

Being as he is my first to go through secondary I was wondering how much progress the average student is supposed to make in KS3. Is it 2 levels? Also what the relationship is between your CAT scores and your KS2 and 3 scores. He scored much lower(I think!) on the quantative CAT test than on the Verbal one and yet his target for the end of KS3 is higher in maths than in English which doesn't make sense. Does KS3 have a writing paper?

Sorry if these are stupid questions but I understand all the data but I am not sure how each bit relates to the other.

We do have a parents evening 2 weeks but I am impatient and anyway, I don't want to spend our short time having the system explained to me rather than talking about DS1!

TIA

[lljkk]

. for reference, too!

[BigBoobiedBertha]

[noblegiraffe]

I know at my school that students' KS3 targets are FFT targets generated from their KS2 data (among other things), and don't look at CATs at all, although the students do sit CAT tests. That might explain his higher maths target, especially if he did better in his maths SATs than his English one.

The 'expected' progress from the government is 3 levels between KS2 and GCSE, but this is not a great measure as a student who has got a level 5 at KS2 obviously has already progressed faster than a student who gets a level 3 at KS2 and expecting the same progress in the future from both of them is flawed. Any targets for KS3 should be taken with a hefty pinch of salt as the end of Y9 is a long way away and a lot can happen in that time. Targets will be revised quite a few times between now and then and hopefully become more based on a personal knowledge of your child rather than a few pieces of data held about them.

[Haggisfish]

I think CATs scores are a test that actually tests students' abilities, and so is amore accurate reflection of their capabilities than the SATs in KS 2, which they are often heavily coached for, and so don't really reflect their innate ability.

Their predicted grade is what the government think they should get, based on what very similar students have achieved in the past. It is for the end of KS3, so say they went into KS3 (Yr7) with a target grade of 6a, I would expect them to reach 6a by end of year 9, 5a by end of year 8 and 4a by end of year 7. Most higher end students achieve quite highly throughout KS3, and often achieve their target grade right from Year 7.

Does that help?

[BigBoobiedBertha]

Thanks for the replies.

I was wondering as I know in junior school the expectation is 2 levels from the end of Yr2 to the end of Yr 6 so I wondered if the same was expected in secondary.

I think the reason I am confused is his English score. He got 110 in CAT so a little above average, 4a in SATs (4c in writing 5c in reading/comp) but his KS3 score is predicted 6b. That was why I wonder about how much you are expected to achieve.. Is it too much to expect 2 levels in 3 years when they only achieve (hopefully) 2 levels in 4 yrs at juniors, in which case a 6b would be reasonable or is something else going on?

On the other hand he only got 98 in maths CATs, 4a in SATs and is predicted a 6a by the end of KS3.

If you had to this the outstanding effort and progress so far in English compared to the goods he got in maths (I know this is very subjective but still....) it doesn't make sense.

Do I make sense though?!

[yotty]

I would have thought the opposite to Haggisfish. Not because I know anything about this subject. This is just my own theory. Most people think of CAT scores as a child's innate ability. However, if a child can score well in SATs, surely this means a child responds well to teaching and therefore should also do well in SATs further up a school and in GCSEs and A levels. So I would be more concerned if my child scored well in CATs yet not very well in SATs. Because this must mean the child could achieve well but is failing to do so. And at the end of the day it's how well you do in GCSEs that counts. No one is interested in your CAT score.
I am not a teacher, so I may be completely wrong. This is purely my own thinking.