New standard testing starting soon at a school near you... Will we know the results?

[Arkadia]

Does anyone know if we can see how your child (P1, P4, P7 or S2) or the school as a whole have fared? I have been trying to find out some information, but could find nothing.
What has surprised me is that my primary where my DD (P4) will be sitting this test next week has been doing A LOT of revision all this week and will carry on doing so until test day next week.

[NiamhFromAcrossTheRoad]

Results are available for individual children as soon as they finish the assessment. We have been given no information on how/if this should be communicated to parents.

Disappointed by not surprised by the revision. I have found the P4 ones reasonable.

[Arkadia]

@niamh, how did you get hold of the questions? I couldn't even find a test paper to give me an idea...

[NiamhFromAcrossTheRoad]

There are no test papers. The assessment is online and can only be accessed from a school computer.

[Arkadia]

Oh, you are a teacher, then, not just a parent. That's why you have so much insider info.
Curious there is no guidance anywhere... Next week I want to ask the teacher, but I want to be prepared because I expect a lot of hhhmmm, weeelll, let'Seeeee.
The school hasn't told us this was happening, I know only because my DD let it slip that there had been a change in the normal school routine.

[OOAOML]

We had parents' evening this week and were shown a printout from our son's numeracy testing. Obviously didn't see anyone else's but the teacher said the results had shown one area where the class was weak and it was one he hadn't covered much. I found it fairly reassuring- the maths teaching at primary has been pretty variable and I think my daughter really wasn't well prepared for high school but we didn't realise.

[Arkadia]

Interesting, @OOAOML. So you didn't get to see the whole paper or what your child got right/wrong? Did you think the questions were easy/difficult?
I am quite curious to see what will happen next week and how the school will handle it. On the plus side, at least they had to do a few days of "intense" maths work, which for sure makes a welcome change of scenery...

[OOAOML]

It was a breakdown of the different sections but not individual questions, so we could see how he did in different areas but no, didn't see actual questions.

[Arkadia]

OOAOML, out of curiosity, in what areas did he do (not so) well? In other words, was it the usual blurb one can make no sense of, or was there something actually practical and actionable?

[OOAOML]

He did really well in all of them apart from one - which the teacher said they hadn't covered yet. It wasn't a report for parents, so there wasn't commentary. I think the school has got useful data out of it, although this is just a snapshot and presumably when the same pupils get tested again it will show how well (or not) things are going.

I've noticed a massive difference between the maths he is doing and the maths my daughter was doing at that stage. For her last couple of years at primary she was apparently in the top group for maths, but she was really unprepared for high school. I know at least one of the teachers was pretty much winding down to retirement but I do wonder what the school was doing about monitoring standards.

[trixymalixy]

DD is in P4 and has just done the tests.

I thought we wouldn't get to see the individual results.

They were prepared for it which i was quite disappointed about. I'd hate for Scottish schools to head down the same route as SATS testing in England.

[Arkadia]

@Trixy, I had the impression that in my case the school was kind of panicking because they had done... sod all, so out of the blue, here they are cramming stuff on fractions, practicing problems and so on.

Do ask the teacher and see what she says. My DD should be doing it, I think, tomorrow.

[MadAssHatter]

Have you read the information here? standardisedassessment.gov.scot
The tests are supposed to be taken when your child is ready, rather than the whole class being tested all at once. It's disappointing that they have planned revision as this isn't what's suppose to happen and only tests how good your child is at remembering and revision. You won't get your schools results or you child's score/test paper but your child's strengths and weaknesses may be discussed with you at parents evening and used to see how they are progressing.

[Arkadia]

Indeed. Pity that the next scheduled meeting is for October...

[Arkadia]

Besides, more than my DC'score (or whatever they use), I am interested in the school's.

[howabout]

Madass that is reassuring. That is exactly how the testing used to work before CforE was introduced. It worked well for my DD1 and definitely felt the lack of it with DD2 (who was the first CforE cohort). Noticeable how much better the checking of progress for DD3 is now.

[MadAssHatter]

I imagine the reason that they won't share the schools results is because they don't want to reflect the English system of league tables etc which is distinct possibility if school results were shared or published.

[hoopdeloop]

1. you won’t be able to see any of the questions because after the test is done, the teachers can’t see the questions anymore. We get a printout telling you the type of question they were asked and if they got it right or wrong.
   
2. you can submit a freedom of information request to get results, not sure if you would only get your child’s or if you would get a comparison with the rest of the class/year group.

[Appin]

The school results will be online from August, and you'll be able to go to a school page and compare results with comparator schools.

[Arkadia]

@Appin, really? How do you know? That would be great news indeed.

[Arkadia]

So, small update... My DD hasn't completed the assessment yet. She still needs to do one section (what a drag!).
Anyway, I spoke to one of her teachers today who was vary vague with regards to what info I will get. Seemingly there will be something in the end of year report, but said that it will be mostly jargon (like last year's report). There should be a reference like "completed level 1 (or 2 or whatever)" but I am not sure what that means.
He also said that this is, as we all know, a highly politicised area, so the government will do their best to make sure they will come out looking as if they are doing a WONDERFUL job.
Whether I will get more information than that, seems to sit will the council.

[cornishstripes]

well that's all absolutely clear - my school does twice yearly assessments (start and end of year) but they do not share any results with parents unless special help is needed.

Does anyone know if that policy is set per school or if it is a Scotland wide issue?

I would love to be getting detailed feedback about my DCs' strengths and weaknesses.

[hoopdeloop]

Please don’t get too caught up in what these tests are saying. I can only really comment on the p1 test as that’s the stage I teach, but the literacy test was far too hard for the children in comparison to the curriculum that is being taught (as outlined by the government). The numeracy test for p1 was fair but again I can’t speak for other stages.

The teacher’s professional judgement is so much more important than these tests done every 3 years. It worries me that the results are going to be published to compare with others. The test only provides a snapshot of the child on that day, rather than an overview of their progress throughout the year. I shall now stand down from my soapbox

[Superjaggy]

Totally agree with hoopdeloop (and I have also been involved in the assessments). Teachers can use them to help form a professional judgment of where a child is at academically, but it's far from the whole picture. For what it's worth I didn't observe any children becoming distressed during the assessments as per the popular tabloid narrative, but some of the literacy assessment questions for P1 are certainly pitched very high.

[hoopdeloop]

Yeah none of my kids were phased by it, in fact they all clapped 🙈

The P1 literacy assessment was quite honestly ridiculous, especially the independent reading sections which wouldn’t look out of place in a textbook. I’ll be emailing my opinions to Mr Swinney!

[prettybird]

My ds would've suffered from a tough P1 "independent reading" assessment: he didn't learn to read - as opposed to learning off by heart because he is bright in blend - until towards the end of P2. The school was relaxed about this as they said that some kids - in particular boys - are just not developmentally ready until they are 6. Not that they were complacent: the depute head spent 6 weeks doing 1:1 with him at the beginning of P2 before suggesting that he get moved down to the middle language group.

The school was right: he was 6.5 when he finally "got" it. 2 years later he was back in the top language group, free reading (loved Lari Don's books) and when he went to secondary, was in the top set for English throughout.

He was one of the last few years that did the "old" tests before CfE came in. They seemed well designed (only shortcoming was the lack of transparency for parents): I liked the way that pupils were only put forward when they were deemed to be ready and the "standards" were something like 70% are expected to have achieved Level x in Py and 10% will have achieved Level x+1 in Py or 40% in Py+1. (that sounds complicated, but I can't remember the actual percentages and targets. I know what I mean anyway )

If that's the way it's being done this time, I'm pleased. not that the media will report it that way But I do hope plenty of parents and teachers write to John Swinney to say that the level of the P1 tests was inappropriate.