KS1 school/teacher refuse to give test results.

[propatria]

A little background-We received the school report with teacher assessment grades,we were suprised by a couple of the grades,no comparative report was received.
We therefore asked for a comparative report,the scores on the actual tests(we realise this is a small part, etc, etc) and the age standardised scores.
Today we and 12 other parents that asked for the same info received a letter that stated "Teacher assessments are accurate" and a refusal to give the test results-"no legal requirement" we were informed age standardised scores are no longer completed,we also received a comparative report that did not subdivide level 3.
So can a teacher/governor confirm
A) The school can refuse to give the actual test results
B) Age standardised scores are no longer completed,
C) Comparative results dont need to subdivide level 3.

Any help much appreciated.

Teacher/governor/Literacy and Assessment co-ordinator here:

A)No, they can't refuse. Here is the relevant bit from the Assessment and Reporting Arrangements 2010. (This is a statutory document:

8.2 Task and test results held by schools as part of an individual child?s educational record must be disclosed to that child?s parents, carers or guardians on request, as prescribed in The Education (Pupil Information) (England) Regulations 2005.

B) Age standardised scores are no longer completed.

C) Comparative results do not need to subdivide level 3, only level 2.

Hmm. However, later in the document there is this clause:

"Information that is exempt from disclosure:
At the end of key stage 1, schools must report a child?s teacher assessment levels to the child?s parents, carers or guardians. There is no requirement in education law to report task or test results or to allow parents, carers or guardians to see, or have copies of, their child?s marked scripts.

This would seem to contradict the earlier information in the same document, and is a change from previous years' requirements.

Sorry, I haven't been very helpful - the information this year seems to be very confusing.

Thanks Feenie,interesting,so in the past we would have been able to get this info,do you think whether its a legal requrement or not its best practice to stonewall parents like this?

Probably not - if it was me I would show you a few examples of evidence which would explain how the judgements had been reached. I can't see the harm in that, and it would be more useful than scores on the actual test, since they are such a small part. I also can't really understand why they won't tell you what 'kind' of level 3 it is when asked.

I think all the parents are agreed the tests are a very small part but Im afraid if they dont give the info some will think theres something funny going on,one parent I spoke to is convinced the brightest children have had their grades held back so that the school can get better added values scores at ks2,the schools refusal to give the test results(which he clearly thinks were higher)just fuels those thoughts.
Sorry if I wasnt clear the individual reports did give level 3 breakdowns but no one Ive spoken to(prob 5 or 6 parents) has a child that got more more than a 3c(most had 3c for every single sub subject) for anything,the parent I mentioned has a child with a reading age 4 years 1 month above actual age and has been a free reader all year but got a 3c reading the same as my child who isnt a free reader and has a reading age 6 months above actual,

but why does it even matter propatria? Why ar some parents so obsessed with test results?

Surely the only real thing to consider is whether your child is happy, has a positive attitude to learning, and is progressing.

So what about test scores and level 3 subdivision.

None of it will matter when your kid is 30. Or even 18.

I guess what I 'm trying to say is stop sweating the small stuff and making an issue out of nothing. It's not important.

You can get any information the school holds on your child within the bounds of the data protection act. You need to formally write to head that you are requesting a breakdown of assessment data on little Tommy as is your right under the 1998 data protection act. The school has about 28 days to respond. See this website about enforcement.

www.ico.gov.uk/what_we_cover/data_protection.aspx

You can get pretty much anything unless it involves another child (ie. behaviour, the school cannot tell which child bit your precious first born, but they would have to tell you that a child bit your pfb if the information is held on SIMS or SERCO CMIS) Other information the school can withhold is child protection stuff.

Your school is obviously teaching the children well if your year two children are already making such excellent progress.

If your children are already a level 3 then the particular 'sub division' of level 3 would make no difference to value added results so this would not make a case of 'holding back' results.

As to the example you provided regarding reading levels, it is entirely likely that both children are level three despite one child having a higher reading age. Without knowing which 'reading age asst.' was used it is hard to comment but most tend to put the weighting on decoding/fluencly and word per minute type exercises.

To be teacher assessesd as a level three reader, decoding is an expected skill and greater weighting is placed on areas such as:

deduction and inference

ability to comment on structure and organisation of text including grammatical features at text level

ability to comment on writer's use of llanguage, including grammatical features at word and sentence level

ability to comment on writers'purposes and viewpoints and effect on the reader

relate texts to their historical, cultural aand social traditions.

As a teacher I would be happy to provide evidence of how I calculated a level for any of the children in my class. You say you are surprised by a couple of the teacher assessed levels on your child's report. Have you gone in to the school to discuss this with the school or just asked for test results (a very crude marker of individual ability).

I am not sure why your school won't release their test results to year two parents (we do) but to be honest if the parents of thirteen year two children all complained about not getting them then he perhaps feels that too much emphais is being placed on them (by parents) and would prefer to give the much more realistic and informative teacher assessed levels.

All the best

*writers'
language

I can't seem to edit my posts.

It's possible they may 'cap' the grades; I've been told that our school report all level 3 children as 3c going into Y3 as a policy.

As another point, I've learned not to pay any attention to the national curriculum levels or the reading levels children in other schools get, as reported on Mumsnet. If I know that DS2 has been given the highest performance grade (on a 1-5 scale) by the school and has been attending G&T classes for maths and literacy, in a school that achieves very highly in Y6, it doesn't matter that his reported NC level is lower than a child in another school. It must just be the way the school reports it.

So that's a long-winded way of saying, while I absolutely understand why you're interested, try not to worry about it.

We were told for a couple of areas - can't remember which - that at this stage there was nothing higher than 2A ie there was no level 3 extension paper to use.

Reports given out last thursday,three parents asked on Friday for meetings to discuss the reports,told by teacher "no time available before end of term"
Thanks for the info about levels at 3 not altering added value,Ill pass that on.

Now that is unacceptable. It is extremely poor form to give out reports late and then offer no time to discuss them.
It is our job as teachers to report on progress/attainment/targets. It is also our job to discuss any areas that parents may feel needs further explanation. This is part of working together in the child's best interests.
I am actually really shocked about this!
In this instance I would request a meeting with the head (or assessment co-ordinator) stating that you would have been happy to meet the class teacher but they are unavailable. This may alter the situation.

"We were told for a couple of areas - can't remember which - that at this stage there was nothing higher than 2A ie there was no level 3 extension paper to use."

Complete rubbish, lucysmum, I'm afraid.

But the level 3 papers aren't (or shouldn't be) treated as extension papers anyway - more the paper that matches the level the child is working at.

thanks, but don't really care - just passing on what we were told. some sort of level 3 or any other level enough for me if they are happy at school, trying hard and liked by teachers and peers.

Feenie,Ive seen you put before that only one paper should be sat,so I checked with a few of the other parents and all the children sat both level 2 and three papers and it was made very clear to them what they were doing,none of this children shouldnt know they are sitting tests stuff,which I belive is what should happen?
We are going to try and see the head tomorrow,I just dont see what the problem is,really,really dont want to go down the data protection act route but a couple of the parents are Lawyers so I expect they will if necessary,all we want is to know what our children did in a test,really cant believe the teacher/school are doing this.
Hopefully the Head will see sense.
I think its prob just the teacher,shes the type who sees parents as a nuisance to be endured rather than an integral part of the team,example one parent early on asked when their d would be moving on a reading level-They were asked why they were questioning her professional judgement...

Again, the ARA makes it very clear that only one test should be given.

It isn't statutory that children shouldn't know that they are sitting tests at 7, but imo is good practice - not helped by the fact that just recently QCDA started putting the word 'test' on the front of the papers - what the justification for that change was, I will never know.

I agree with mumtoabeautifulboy (again!) in that such a large group of parents getting snippy en masse can cause a school to get defensive and dig their heels in - but the easiest way to avoid that is to lay open the assessment procedures, as we both said. Assessment procedures aren't really a secret, so I can't see why they are being treated as such.

I really can't understand why the teacher isn't showing the SATs test papers to the parents. After all, the score on the test forms a small part of the teacher's final assessment, and any anomalies between test result and reported level should be easily justified from records of work during the year.

On the other hand, I also can't understand why parents are making such a big fuss about seeing the papers, as they are only used to support the teacher's final assessment.

Thanks for your help Feenie,as you say they arent a secret so why not tell us,hopefully the Head will see sense,as I said I dont think this "mass protest" would have taken place if the teacher had agreed to go through the reports with the parents.

Rolla-The parents would have been happy to discuss the anomalies(if they exist) with the teacher,she has refused to meet any parent,the parents then perfectly politely asked for info on the tests,the response was an extremely unhelpfull "no legal requirement" reply,that maybe so but that isnt the way to talk/write to nearly half a classes parents who are merely asking for some info about their childs education,they arent asking for state secrets ,The parents(well this one at least) dont want to make a big fuss,but if met with sheer b... mindedness like this then what else can they do,and yes I know in the great scheme of things it doesnt matter a jot,but in a way that isnt the point,its the total lack of respect for a genuine question from parents.

Just to add that the SATs papers may have been used as early as the Autumn term in a diagnostic/assessment for learning way, so the results would have been very different to if they had been used in May/June. When the paper is used is up to the school.

The papers were indeed sat in may/june.

Well the papers etc have now been given to the parents.They came with a letter which begs a couple more questions so can anyone(Feenie?) explain the following:
The letter states"There are no fine grades at level 3 in any subject" Whats a fine grade ?
Weve been given a" percentile rank" is that the class or nationally?

Many thanks.