- Myatt & Co newsletter
- Posts
- KS3 Assessment summary
KS3 Assessment summary
Hello Colleague
One of the odd things about assessment is that we think it should be easier than it actually is!
When we start to unpack assessment, we find there are so many layers.
For example, the fact that assessment can be both formative and summative.
Then there’s the seductive simplicity of numbers, levels, grades and progression matrices. They’re seductive because they provide a sense of security in that they are an indicator of standards and progress.
Yet they are fraught with difficulty.
One of the main misconceptions is to think that the data generated internally within a school has the same validity and reliability as externally generated data.
It doesn’t, so we’ve got to stop kidding ourselves that it does.
On the other hand, when we stop trying to shoehorn all subjects into the same boxes to show how pupils are making progress, or not, in KS3, we can focus on the distinct characteristics of each subject.
We can ask what is the unique contribution that this subject makes to the intellectual and personal development of our young people. What does it look like when they are performing well in an individual subject?
What are the important ideas that we want pupils to know, understand and be able to use?
It might be controversial, not least because the answers don’t sit neatly on a spreadsheet, but logically there are two ways of coming to some broad answers:
Do they know the basics eg key words, definitions, processes? We can check these through low stakes quizzes, either ones we have created or one of the online providers that match the content we are teaching.
The second way is to sample pupils’ work, whether an extended piece of writing, or something they have produced which shows what they know, understand and can do. We can then talk about these samples with colleagues to arrive at a professionally informed conclusion about whether our pupils have learnt what was intended.
Comparative judgement principles are one of the most accurate and professionally rewarding ways of achieving this.
The bottom line is, we need to know whether our pupils have learnt what was intended and to take some of the indicators to conclude either that they have, in which case excellent! Or they haven’t, in which case, what are we going to do to help them to fill the gaps?
Until next time
Mary