England considers ending state tests for children under 16

Apparently, Whales stopped standardized testing for children under the age of 16 and did not see a decline in standards, so England is think of following suit.

Here are a few excerpts from the article:


England considers scrapping SATs

ENGLAND could be on the verge of following Wales’ pioneering decision to scrap national tests for under-16s.

Last night a leading education expert said English policy makers could be forced to take on board more Welsh measures if a survey finds children are doing better in Wales than in England.

The General Teaching Council for England has proposed scrapping national tests for seven, 11 and 14-year-old pupils because it says the stress caused by over-testing school children is poisoning attitudes towards education

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Professor David Reynolds, from the University of Plymouth, said, “When Wales began to abolish the external Sats there was a degree of concern in English policy making circles that standards would suffer.


“But Wales does not appear to have performed worse than England in the early years of primary because of this."

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A study submitted by the GTC to the House of Commons’ education select committee states that the current assessment regime in England “needs to be changed”.

It claims that teachers are being forced to “drill” pupils to pass tests, rather than concentrate on giving them a broad education.

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Keith Bartley, chief executive of the GTC, said, “Of course there still needs to be a way of testing pupils when their standard education comes to a close, whether that be at 16 or 18.


“But placing added stress on pupils, teachers and parents on a regular basis before that time is not creating the best environment for learning. We need to trust teachers more and let them do what they are trained for.


“Teachers are drilling students for exams rather than being able to teach them naturally and to their own strengths.


“Children will learn best in an environment where the stress of examinations is not hovering over them constantly.

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Right now England is going to wait and see how less testing works in Whales. Earlier I posted on some interesting trends in test results in England.

One child in five who was doing well in some core subjects at the end of primary school failed to make any further progress in the first three years of secondary education, according to figures obtained by the Conservatives. Many of the top performing pupils at 11 actually did worse by the age of 14.

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Related Tags: Student performance, standardized testing, primary school, secondard school, homeschool