Meeting of the Parliament 19 September 2018
The president of the Association of Directors of Education in Scotland made the point, in the letter that she authored with my officials to directors of education, that assessment is an essential part of a good education system and is an integral part of effective teaching and learning. She said:
“A key principle of Scotland’s education system is that assessment is for learning. Assessment allows teachers to understand children and young people’s progress and to plan the next phase of their learning and teaching. Assessment is, therefore, a key tool to inform teachers’ professional judgment of the needs of the children and young people they are teaching. ... The Scottish Government and the Association of Directors of Education, therefore, see the assessments as an integral part of everyday learning for children and young people in P1, P4, P7 and S3, delivered as part of the education authority’s duty to provide education.”
The “professional judgment” of teachers—Liz Smith made this point—is at the heart of the framework and the standardised assessments that we have put forward, and the assessments provide a consistent tool to inform those judgments.
Teachers have been using assessments for years to confirm their judgment of children’s progress. The vast majority—29 out of 32 local authorities—were using some form of standardised assessment before the national scheme was introduced. Crucially, the majority were assessing P1 children not just once, but twice during the year.