Just how easy is it to achieve L4 in the L3-5 reading SAT tests?

[Twitchomatic]

DD has achieved L4 in a reading SATS paper. She's in year 2.

Her private school pass on test results (they do a lot of tests) but seem loathe to share their teacher assessments, which seems odd. Neither do they provide next steps / targets.

Not to do DD down at all, she's bright, enjoys reading etc., but I'm struggling to accept that she's working at a level more usually expected in year 6.

Am I right to think her result says more about the test than her ability and should I push the school for their teacher assessment levels rather than accepting the test result at face value?

I ask this because I assumed her teacher would have to back up her end of year level with evidence from class work yet her class comprehension work is fairly basic. Or don't the rules about yr 2 SAT results being teacher assessed apply to private schools?

I've wondered the same thing! If your child is a voracious reader from an early age (as mine was) I think it appears fairly easy. I thought it must say something about the tests too, but these tests are what schools use to back up their teacher assessment and are used in many state schools as well as private. Many are produced by very reliable educational researchers and publishers.

DS was reading Jeremy Strong and Horrid Henry before starting school, quietly to himself - so that would put him on 2a or 3, at that stage (according to the poster above). By year 1 he was tested by my sister, a teacher, as a level 4. He transferred to private school and tested as a strong level 5 in year 3 (which I found hard to believe), but by year he was a level 6 and in year 5, his school have 'several' testing at level 6. He is getting these scores on various standardised tests his school use each year.

DS is a very strong performer academically at his school, but I cannot see how he has the emotional understanding of a 15 year old, or the 'life experience'.

Our school seems to rely solely on these tests and not on teacher assessment, in school record keeping and when giving results to parents.

Gah, meant to say by year 4 was a level 6 and in year 5 'several are testing at level 6.

Reading-wise, my DS (in Y2, about to sit his SATS) can comfortably read Dahl, Famous Five etc and has read the How to Train Your Dragon Books and David Walliams - flown with comprehension, a few struggles with words here and there. On the Burt reading test he comes out somewhere around 11 years.

His teacher has said none of her class will score above a level 3. And only a couple may scrape a 3 in literacy if they are very, very good, and I doubt my DS will be one of them as he's rarely on the radar anyway. She marks very harshly, because apparently it does no favours long term, as they then have to be pushed to reach higher (inflated?) marks in the Y6 ones, etc.

How will your school now support with meeting your child's needs, as her marks were so high?

Thank you for all the conversation, it's really interesting hearing people's views!

If books read was the main measure then DD would do fine. She read the first HP in the summer holiday following year 1, (I've only let her read 1 -3) but since then she's read The Hobbit, Mrs Frisby and the Rats of Nimh, The Secret Garden and Journey to Riversea amongst others. She also loves audio books and being read to, so has a literary bent.

But it's not the only measure because despite understanding more than enough to enjoy those books it still doesn't mean she's at L4 (I don't think).

Stepepmum Regarding the content, the year 6 SAT covers L3 - L5, which thinking about it is very broad. Yet the writing must be accessible to a L3 child, at least to a point.

Also I think you've got to the nub of the issue re L4, which is are the papers set to enable as many children as possible to get that L4 mark, rather than really testing whether a child has mastered all the L4 skills?

If a SATS paper is the measure could a teacher only be confident that a child was at L4 if they achieved L5? No wonder secondary schools test all the children again when they arrive in year 7!!

Justanother, it's interesting that your DS's private school also relies on tests rather than teacher assessment, although at that level he's clearly doing exceptionally well.

Mimsy, on joining the school it became apparent that L4 reading at the end of KS1 is standard for about half or more of the year 2s. Therefore no extra support is required. I'm just left wondering if it's flimflam ...

ds grammar is state grammar, not private. They use the reading level test as indicators as to how boys are doing with reading specifically, as they push all of them to be reading age 16 before they begin GCSE courses. It is actually a bit separate to their literacy, it is part of an accelerated reading programme they do.

The sats papers are (as I understand it) set so that the further you go through the paper the harder it is, so the first pages are at level 3 and the next exercise harder and so on. Level 6 is separate paper.

If your dd is reading and understanding HP then she is probably comfortably a level 4. HP is read by year 4-6 around here, I don't know anyone who could read it at year 2.

In state school sats they have to be comfortably performing at that level across the board to get given that level, so one paper is not enough. Which is why teacher assessment is so important. I think for many the understanding is not there. They read the text at one level, but the depth and implications of the text may be missing (not suggesting that is true of your dd)

The papers are not set to make sure kids pass. They are set at level 4.

In a typical year 2 class, with a broad spectrum of ability, I would say that no-one is able to read HP, the best readers are (like my dd ) able to cope just with Dahl and How to Train Your Dragon, but that would be fewer 5 ish kids and the bulk would be about Horrid Henry level. In dds class there are at least 7-8 kids who would not be able to read Horrid Henry.

I think when you are in a selective situation, it is easy to forget that the national average is very different. My dd wouldn't even be at mid point in your dds class, yet she is top of hers. That is why average at year 6 is level 4.

DD is in yr2 & working at a 3A (had parents eve last week).

She reads HP, The Secret Garden, Black Beauty, Roald Dahl (currently reading The Witches as she was too scared before), Paddington Bear etc.

The school will not award her higher than 3A this school year (don't know whether she would be or not).

They (the school) will probably have about 25% at L3 (C-A) in reading at the end of the year although DD is the only one with a target of 3A.

simpson - kids can only be recorded as a level 3 if they are working at level 3B, this is because they are not recorded as 3A, 3B etc, but only as level 2 or level 3. I mean their official sats level which ends up in published results (school has 20% at level 3 etc)

so you can get a report which says they are level 3c, but that child's official sats result will be recorded as level 2.

You school sounds about same as ours, with the exception of your dd who could go higher. But Op's school has 50% of kids at level 4. That is pretty unusual.

Yeah, that's only true in certain LEAs, stepped - it used to be the case in mine, but isn't any more. It definitely isn't statutory or standard.

Yeah, that's only true in certain LEAs, stepped - it used to be the case in mine, but isn't any more. It definitely isn't statutory or standard.

Yeah, that's only true in certain LEAs, stepped - it used to be the case in mine, but isn't any more. It definitely isn't statutory or standard.

Oops, sorry for the three-way post

Stepped - it definitely is the case in our LEA (I work in the same school as my DC but different year group).

However not sure how the school has recorded L3 in the past (KS1) as kids just don't get 3Bs usually, but 3Cs which surely would mean that there are no kids who achieve L3?

The reason I posted what my DD can do is the OP was querying whether she (her DC) was L4, but yes, I agree that 50% L4 is highly unusual, I would have thought one kid at a L4 in KS1 would be unusual!

In my area L3 is reported as L3 regardless of A,B or C