Unions united on assessment reform

The Midlands TUC passed a resolution calling for an end to SAT's (Standard Assessment Tests) in 2008. Below is the most recent posting on the National Union of Teachers website regarding SATs. The government is currently consulting on primary assessment and accountability, and the link to this is reproduced below.

Three of the country’s biggest education unions are calling for reform of SATs and league tables.
The NUT teamed up with the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) and the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) on 15 December 2010 to launch a joint publication, Common Ground on Assessment and Accountability in Primary Schools. In it, the three unions set out their thinking on a way forward for assessment, school improvement and inspection that will benefit all.
The unions believe SATs should be scrapped in favour of teacher assessment that is subject to external scrutiny. National sampling, where a representative sample of pupils is assessed yearly, is well established in other countries and could replace SATs in England as the main measure of national education standards. Such tests would be anonymous, and results not published in league tables, drastically reducing the pressure and stress currently experienced by Year 6 pupils, teachers and school leaders.
NUT Deputy General Secretary Kevin Courtney said: “We need intelligent accountability – government must trust the professionals.”
The NUT, ATL and NAHT also agree that inspections should be supportive of schools – a shared professional experience between all those involved, rather than an external invasion.
Government review of primary assessment and accountability
The Government has now launched its review of primary assessment and accountability.
If you or your school would like to make a response to the review, go to the DfE consultation website: http://www.education.gov.uk/consultations/
This will give you full details of how and where to send your comments. The closing date for responses is Thursday 17 February 2011.
It is particularly important to tell the review about your personal experiences of the current testing and accountability systems – their impact on schools you have worked in, pupils you have taught and on you personally and professionally.
You may also want to include ideas about how you think assessment and accountability should be reformed to improve teaching and learning.
If you wish to reflect NUT policy in your own response, links to documents which explain the reasons behind the NUT’s opposition to the SATs and to the school league tables are provided below, as are joint policy documents written with other teacher associations.
The most important thing, however, is that you do respond to the review – it is essential to let the Government know the profession’s views on this issue, so that it is fully informed by primary teachers’ experience and expertise, before the proposals for reform of primary assessment and accountability are published next year.

For assessment reform campaign materials and resources, please go to: http://www.teachers.org.uk/assessment