NAHT calls on Morgan to hold off on publication of primary test results

The National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) as called on Education Secretary Nicky Morgan to hold off on the publication of any 2016 primary schools test data.

In an open letter to Morgan, the NAHT claims that ‘teachers and head teachers all agree that a thorough review of assessment is necessary’ and urges the Education Secretary to ‘commit to a fundamental review of assessment to avoid further problems next year’.

The letter, co-signed by Russell Hobby, general secretary, Kim Johnson, president, James Bowen, NAHT Edge director and Amanda Hulme, chair of NAHT’s assessment group, warns that marks may vary in unpredictable ways.

It reads: “Given concerns about both the design and administration of the new assessments, the lack of preparation for schools, the inadequate time to implement the new curriculum for the current cohort, and the variations in approaches between schools resulting from delayed and obscure guidance, it is hard to have confidence in the data produced by this round of assessments.”

According to the NAHT, these issues may skew the distribution of marks in a way that simply setting a lower threshold may not solve, causing them to believe that the data should not be published externally.

Additionally, the NAHT also highlights issues with the new ‘secure fit’ model, claiming that children who are excellent writers could be incorrectly labelled as working below the expected standard. The letter argues that a ‘best fit’ option is needed to give teachers ’some sensible flexibility’ when assessing children’s writing, which it suggests would give ‘a more accurate reflection of whether or not a child has grasped the overall skills of writing’.

In light of its concerns over the assessments, the NAHT has also set up its own independent review, which will consider the current assessment procedures, statutory testing, the role of teacher assessment, transition between phases, accountability requirements and overall coherence.