CIEA Interim Director, Graham Herbert, said:

I welcome the increased clarity on the purpose of the key stage 2 assessment. This will allow the tests to measure what they are intended to measure, increasing their validity and promoting clearer progression between primary and secondary school.

I welcome the increased role for teacher assessment. Teacher assessment and external tests measure different things and both are needed for a fully rounded picture of the achievement of 11 year olds.

Teacher assessment needs to be rigorous and robust if it is to secure public confidence. As we told Lord Bew in our evidence, the CIEA stands ready to develop a programme of accredited training for chartered assessors to support the teacher assessments of  key stage 2 tests. This would provide a public guarantee that teacher assessment is being carried out robustly to nationally agreed standards.

CIEA Chair, Dr John Dunford, said:

Lord Bew has proposed combining external tests and internal assessment in a way that would increase the reliability of the levels achieved by the pupils beyond a purely external system.

Chartered assessors are experienced professionals, accredited by CIEA to carry out internal assessment to external standards. A nationwide network of chartered assessors would increase the reliability and credibility of teacher assessment and provide the public with the reassurance that the levels achieved by 11 year olds are consistent with national standards.

Primary schools would either have their own chartered assessor or would use an external assessor to moderate their judgements.

Notes

Details about the Chartered Institute of Educational Assessors can be found at www.ciea.org.uk