Introduction
Section 2: National Curriculum tests accessibility: quality assurance at source Back
Our aim for this part of the consultation is to ask for comments on the ways in which National Curriculum Test Development Agencies might be able to evaluate the accessibility of the key stage tests that they produce. This self-evaluation guidance is designed to check that all the questions in a set of tests are accessible, without further modification, to the widest possible a range of pupils.
There has always been a strong emphasis on the development of accessible questions for the national tests – stronger than for some other assessments such as GCSEs or GCEs. In part this is because the key stage tests were originally conceived as school tests, and were designed for pupils who were younger than those taking GCSEs. Furthermore, key stage tests have always been statutory and intended for all pupils, so it was never possible to argue that a pupil who could not access them should not be doing them. For this reason, fair access to the key stage tests had to be ensured as far as possible.
There are three proposals in this section we are seeking your response to:
- Proposal 1: Special Education Teacher Review Panels
- Proposal 2: Pupil Review Panels
- Proposal 3: Differential Item Functioning (DIF) analyses.
I would be strongly in favour of Special Education Teacher Review Panels if there is funding for this. My experience with dyslexic pupils taking the old Key Stage 3 SATS and now primary pupils taking Key Stage 2 SATS is that, for some, the English comprehension papers are really challenging. 15 minutes is not long for a slow reader to cover all the passages initially and short term memory deficit makes it difficult to find the answers in the text. Other problems may be actually understanding the questions (obviously many improvements are already in place now) and responding with correct spelling and legible handwriting.
As I am now a governor rather than a teacher, I don’t know how much classroom practice pupils have with such language exercises, but I have done a little tutoring in the last couple of years.
One wouldn’t want to be only ‘teaching to the test’. The skills involved are necessary ‘life skills’.
Like or Dislike:
0 
0