News

SATs are harming schools, says education expert

(7 May 2010)

Professor Peter Tymms

Statutory testing at the age of 11 is doing more harm than good to teachers and pupils, according to a leading education expert at Durham University.

Standard Assessment Tests (SATs), which are due to start on Monday May 10, are being boycotted by two teachers' unions, the National Association of Head Teachers and the National Union of Teachers, who say the tests create unnecessary stress.

Professor Peter Tymms, a Director in the Centre for Evaluation and Monitoring (CEM) at Durham University, identifies the main problem as lying with the creation of league tables and the timing of the tests.

He said: "The league tables generate unhealthy pressure on schoolteachers and pupils and this leads to a narrowing of the curriculum.

"The information on performance is generated right at the end of primary school when it is too late for teachers to use the results to help their pupils."

He added that good assessment information is needed to help teachers to help their pupils. This would enable headteachers to run their schools and assure taxpayers that their money is being well spent.

Prof Tymms, whose research centre is the largest educational research unit in a UK university, believes that a two-pronged approach would be better than the current system of SATs.

He said: "First, there should be tests of a sample of pupils to establish standards in various areas, notably maths, English and science, on a yearly basis at key ages. This would establish what children know and can do nationally.

"Secondly, diagnostic assessment in key areas should be available to schools, to provide information that can help teachers to teach and schools to evaluate themselves."