News from mathsblog.co.uk
Balls to end SATs?
For the first time Ed Balls, the Schools Secretary, has hinted that there might to be an end to SAT tests as we know them for our 11 year olds.
On the telly today he told Andrew Marr,
“The current system is not set in stone. We are looking currently at a way in which we could assess progress child by child with individual level tests where the tests would be chosen in a way which was right for the child, rather than everybody doing the same test on the same day. For 2009, we are going to do the same kind of tests as in previous years before the problems with ETS, but for the long term I am really keen to get this right, to listen.”
After this summer’s fiasco then it must be applauded that he is considering alternatives, but, of course, there is every chance that we end up with something even more bureaucratic, if that’s possible. We will wait and see!