Standardised Assessments in Scottish Education
The RSE has responded to the Scottish Parliament’s Education and Skills Committee inquiry into Scottish National Standardised Assessments in schools.
These are assessments in literacy and numeracy. They are completed by children in primary years 1, 4 and 7 and third year of secondary school. The RSE response focuses on the purpose of standardised assessments, their implementation and their usefulness.
The RSE Education Committee welcomes the opportunity to respond to the Scottish Parliament Education and Skills Committee’s call for evidence on the Scottish National StandardisedAssessments (SNSAs).
The Parliament’s review is timely since it allows the education system to reflect on the first year of the SNSAs following their introduction in schools from August 2017. The RSE is supportive of developments in Scottish education that support the provision of more reliable data to underpin education policy. We do not have any principled objection to the use of standardised assessments in Scotland. Rather, our comments focus on the rationale for their introduction, the way they have been implemented and the usefulness of the data generated. The RSE would be pleased to discuss our comments with the Education and Skills Committee should members consider this helpful.
