The steady improvement in KS2 SAT results continued this year, according to the Department for Education figures. Last year 79% reached at least Level 4. This year the figure rose to 80%.
There are however, several points that need to be raised about these results. Originally level 4 was talked of as being an average for 11 year old children. Now everyone is expected to reach at least this ‘average’, which is unrealistic and mathematically it would mean that the average will surely rise. Some children who work really hard but don’t reach the level can feel a great sense of failure rather than a sense of achievement.
The second point is that it hides the differences between girls and boys, which is even more marked in the English results. The question why so many boys struggle has yet to be answered and until more male teachers are recruited into Primary Schools I am sure that little will change.
In a similar vein a study published today (AptiQuant) suggests that those peple who use Internet Explorer have a lower than average IQ! Those using Chrome, Firefox and Safari have higher IQs and users of Camino and Opera came out on top. What does this mean? Probably absolutely nothing!
For the record, I am a Mac user and use Firefox or on occasion safari!!!
I have to say that this is a very interesting post that raises many of the issues associated with SATs testing in Year 6. In my opinion there is too much pressure put on children, often by parents who do not understand that SATs results effect the school not the child. If a child doesn’t get a level 4, it does not mean that they are not good enough, it means that they did not do very well on one particular test. I think that it easy to get blinkered and to think that if someone isn’t getting the average score then there must be some kind of problem. Instead of describing level 4 as an average, it should be described as the target.
I have referred to your article on my blog as it made for interesting reading and described some of the issues surrounding SATs to good effect.
Skint.Teacher