Primary KS2 Results - a question

[testbunny]

Hi there

I have been looking at the primary school results.

Please could someone explain what the difference is between the results for 'KS2 Teacher Assessments' and 'KS2 Test results'.

They look like they measure the same thing (i.e. '% of children achieving level 4 etc')but the % figures are different?

thanks very much

Teacher Assessments levels show you the level the child has been working at over a variety of genres/activities/topics during the year, Test levels show you the marks the same child achieved in a 45 minute test on one day in May!

Teachers continually assess the children they teach using their day to day work (not just tests) in addition to this schools must administer a set of tests at the end of the primary phase which provides a snapshot of what the child can do on the day/week of the tests.

As the tests only show what the child did that day/week it can be influenced by any number of things - illness - emotional upset - lack of sleep ... (children can have an "on day" as well as an "off day") so may not accurately reflect what the child does on a daily basis which is where the teacher assessment comes in,

Test results are just that - the results of the tests. Narrow judgements made in a 45 minute snapshot. Lots of things can affect it - a child's hamster dying, a cold, or a child 'squeaking' into the next level by just one mark.

Teacher assessments are sound judgements formed from a lots of sources of evidence, describing how a child works on a day to day basis in the classroom. A child can't squeak into a level here - they would working solidly at a certain level, and the teacher would have lots of knowledge about the way the child worked to back that up.

Both have equal weighting - but this explains a little why the figures can be different. It can be very easy for a child to go uo to high school as a level 4, or a level 5, because their tests results show them scraping into the next level (or missing the level they are capable of, for whatever reason), but looking to the teacher assessment aswell can give a more sensible picture.

Spot the teachers!

thanks very much!