Hi jacobibitoli:
My DD1 also took KS2 SATs last May - and indeed I posted here about the bizarre decision of the school to split her single form Y6 class into those struggling to achieve NC L4 (they were taught by the Y6 school teacher) and those secure to achieve NC L4 or better (they were taught by supply teachers for one term and then due to parental complaint - not mine I hasten to add (I'd completely given up on the school by that point) - a KS1 teacher was suddenly promoted to teaching this group with claims of her new found expertise in mathematics - oddly that wasn't obvious in KS1 with either DDs).
So having been through this what do I think about purpose of SATs.
FOR GOVERNMENT: Well this is a system most countries utilise to ensure that schools (largely paid for by tax payers) are educating children to the appropriate standard. To date no country has come up with an alternative solution to determining whether children know how to add/ subtract/ multiply/ divide - read at their age level - (and these are notionally the main targets of primary/ elementary education) - other than testing.
FOR PARENTS: This is a means of getting feedback on your child's performance which is totally independent of the school's. Some schools are notoriously generous in assessing pupil performrance/ others are possibly too hard. Obviously it's performance on the day - and no one test can sum up your child - but it does give you a concept of how they're doing against national standards.
This will become more important since in England we're leaving the national NC Level system apparently - and how children are assessed is now being devolved to each school.
FOR PUPILS: Testing is one of those things kids dread and can get wound up about - but it is also part and parcel of school life. Quizzes, exams, tests, etc... all occur. I don't hear anyone objecting to a swimming coach evaluating whether their child can move up to the next group against agreed targets or a ballet teacher subjecting a child to a exam. Indeed I don't think either parents/ children get that worked up about it.
Perhaps our mistake is treating academic examinations as if they're somehow different. You've worked for weeks on these things - the test is your opportunity to shine - just as it would be in a piano exam or a dance exam. Sure it's a bit nerve wracking - but it's a right of passage. I think parents have to signal to their children that this is just part of the job - whereby after doing the work for a certain period of time you have to demonstrate that you can successfully work to that ability level/ recall facts under pressure.
FOR TEACHERS: Performance Related Pay and 'school league tables', as well as floor targets - all play a huge part in a school's/ teacher's decision about how to handle Year 6. For us, our school has been working perilously close to the older 60% floor standard (achieving a worrying 62% in one year) and skating dangerously near the new 65% floor standard (65% of all Y6 pupils in a school are required to achieve Nc L4+ at KS2 SATs). I don't know - but I strongly suspect - this is why Year 6 becomes a SATs preparation hot house.
Now I don't completely understand whether children with disabilities/ SEN are included in this floor target or not - but notionally 65% of pupils achieving NC L4 isn't a terribly difficult or unachievable target. Most schools are currently achieving this.
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Other countries do handle this differently - by making the test content and the test date a total surprise. Logic being if it's too hard - well it's too hard for everybody. Tests are delivered the day before near the close of day - so there can be no 'leak' to pupils - and are collected at the end of the day of the test.
It's often a one day event in other countries - and this is particularly where I think England over cooks things - by making it a week long affair. Yes it is daunting to have questions you can't answer or problems you find difficult. The English SATs clearly have been designed as a two tier system - whereby bright students have to undergo further testing to establish their ability. Maybe I've missed something, but my impression is nobody questions whether that's fair to the bright students.
Personally - I think they need to devise a test that starts at NC L4 and goes to NC L6 (possibly higher) - if you can't access any of the questions there's a serious problem. It would halve the bill to tax payers for marking and for printing KS2 SATs exam scripts.
Maybe the solution to schools heavily coaching for SATs is to make testing content and date a total surprise - at any point between May - July. Something that happens toward the end of Y6 but doesn't restrict regular class work during the course of the year.
Certainly as a parent - I viewed the panic stricken decisions DD1's school was making in Y6 as an admission of total failure. They had consistently been teaching 6 months - 1 year behind what other schools were doing, there was no homework to reinforce (let alone enhance) learning and there was a general complacency amongst staff that many parents would 'do the job for them' by coaching or tutoring their children for the 11+ (grammar schools are state funded here - but entrance is by exam results).
Looking back - I'd say that I'm not against testing - DD1 had a fantastic result in Maths and very solid results in English and Teacher Assessment of Science. We're very pleased with her - and we also know that her attempt at the 11+ made a lot of difference to her results. Indeed my impression of the English primary system is that the ghost in the corner of the room is that pupils with parents who seriously support learning at home/ encourage going for the 11+ are the ones that achieve.