As many will you have noted, DfE published their response to the consultation on primary school assessment yesterday (27th March 2014) – this can be found here https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/new-national-curriculum-primary-assessment-and-accountability.  This post summarises those changes, and briefly considers their commercial implications.

As widely predicted, decile reporting has gone, however, there have been several changes to the assessment regime:

• New baseline assessment at Reception.  This is to be sourced from a range of assessment approaches (including commercial) approved by DfE.  This will be optional – schools not choosing to make this assessment will be assessed on progress from KS1 in 2022, and only on attainment beyond (see floor standards below)
• KS1 from 2016 new externally produced and internally marked tests for maths and reading will inform teacher assessment, and a SPAG (this last to be externally marked?) will inform TA of writing.  These tests will return a scaled score (around 100).  New performance descriptors to aid TA will be published in Autumn 2014
• KS2 New performance descriptors published.  Tests as now, but producing a scaled score.  Children’s results reported to children alongside school, local and national averages
• Low attaining pupils – no change to p-scales

New floor standards introduced:

• Schools judged on whether schools make sufficient progress from KS1 (2022) or from the baseline if taken (2023 on) OR
• 85% or more of pupils meet expected standard in reading, writing AND maths (to be similar to 4b)
• Explicitly stated that schools not meeting floor standards ”could result in the school becoming a sponsored academy”

League tables will publish more data:

• Average progress made by pupils in reading, writing and mathematics;
• Percentage of pupils achieving the expected standard in reading, writing and mathematics at the end of key stage 2;
• Average score of pupils in their end of key stage 2 assessments; and,
• Percentage of pupils who achieve a high score in all areas at the end of key stage 2.

What does all the above mean for publishers/ those seeking to support schools?  The obvious main implication is that there will be a surge in demand for assessments in Reception.  These need to be available in short order, as it is likely that schools will begin to trial approaches in September 2014.

However, there are wider implications.  Schools will need to track both progress and attainment across Reception, KS1 and KS2 – as all do now.  Unfortunately, this response does not detail how progress will be measured, and merely notes that scaled scores will be available at KS1 and KS2, with detailed progress descriptors.  These progress descriptors will need to be mapped to approaches enabling schools to determine whether children are below, on or ahead of track.  And tracking software needs to be adapted to record and analyse this data.  One of the key things Ofsted will be looking for in the future is a robust approach to this, and schools will be looking for validated approaches.

Thus the opportunity is twofold – both in terms of developing resources and the systems to enable schools to ensure that they are on track to exceed the new floor standards.  And publishers have little time to meet them …