Assessment

The NGA is not opposed to testing; the governing body is responsible for the overall performance of the school and so governing bodies must have access to the information required to monitor and evaluate achievement and to both support and challenge the professional staff of the school in their important work.

The NGA believes that schools should not be judged on absolute results in assessment tests and public examinations.  Even tests that attempt to take value added performance into account are flawed, because they cannot measure important aspects of a child's educational experience.

NGA is opposed to league tables - even those showing value added performance.

Despite some improvements since their introduction the current primary tests are still not sufficiently diagnostic about an individual child's progress, and they have led to a system of test preparation and cramming for ten year old children in too many schools that the NGA believes is unacceptable. 

The NGA would like to see the development of a national system of independently moderated.formative tests and progress measures, with the results published to parents.

April 2009