Adding to the debate about National Standards

James Popham, in his book “The Truth about Testing” cites three reasons why we should not allow students scores in standardised tests to be indicators of educational quality:
1. Standardised achievement tests should not be used to evaluate the quality of student’s schooling because there are meaningful mismatches between what is tested and what is supposed to be taught, and those mismatches are often unrecognised.2. Standardised achievement tests should not be used to evaluate the quality of student’s schooling because the quest for wide score-spread tends to eliminate items covering important content that teachers have emphasised and students mastered.3. Standardised achievement tests should not be used to judge the quality of student’s schooling because factors other than instruction also influence performance on these tests.

National testing in what ever guise will not improve learning outcomes for children, enhanced assessment practice, home – learner – teacher relationships, and enhanced teacher pedagogy developed within a positive, supportive environment will.
Here at Huntley we like to think we provide this.