I FIRST wrote to The National on the subject of Scottish National Standardised Assessments (SNSAs) in November 2015, shortly after the First Minister announced these were to be introduced. In that letter I also outlined the very negative outcomes of national testing after it was initiated by the Tories in the 1980s: years of a narrowing curriculum and young people’s experiences; excesses in teacher workload; and a deskilling of the teacher workforce.
As a SNP activist and primary teacher in Glasgow, I expressed my bitter disappointment that a very similar move was about to be repeated. I wrote of my fervent hope that Ms Sturgeon would change her mind after hearing the counter arguments from education professionals which would indicate that such a policy would be unlikely to bring about an improvement in pupil performance or the much desired closing of the attainment gap.
READ MORE: How do the controversial P1 online assessments work?
That change of mind has not happened. But certainly, the First Minister and her Cabinet Secretary John Swinney have had feedback from educators: in the space of one fortnight in June, 460 teachers responded to the EIS survey of teachers’ and learners’ experiences of the first year’s roll-out. This information was passed on to the Scottish Government.
It is unsurprising that John Swinney has mainly ignored that two-week snapshot of teachers’ views, given what they had to say. Right from the start we find that the SNSAs are invalid in terms of uniformity: some children are having one-to-one support, others are being taken for an assessment en masse and left to get on with it; some have brand new tablets to work with, others have ageing PCs dating back many years; some are completing the SNSAs in class, others are marched off to the ICT Suite; some are being supported by their class teacher, others are having matters overseen by staff they may not have met before.
READ MORE: P1 children should be learning through play, not computers
These experiences of the pupils involved in the SNSAs, as reported by the participating teachers, is not entirely negative – just mostly so. Of course everyone seems to have focused on the reports of extremely distressed, tearful P1 pupils (in my opinion, if it were only one child affected thus, it would be one too many) but other equally concerning behaviours have been observed at all SNSA levels in primary: pupils rapidly and randomly hitting answers through boredom; pupils, inexperienced with using a mouse, unable to “drag” cursors; some children calling out answers to others sitting nearby (likely because they are used to, you know, co-operating with one another in lessons).
Certainly, I for one, have not heard of a single pupil describing them as the “fun” that Mr Swinney seems to think them to be. Maybe his interpretation of “play-based” is very different to mine?
READ MORE: Swinney to address teachers before P1 testing vote
And of course, the fears I referred to in my last letter are already coming to pass: teachers have reported giving up lesson prep time to administer tests; senior management, nurture teachers, English as an Additional Language teachers are all having to step in to conduct SNSAs due to staff shortages; valuable time is being wasted contacting a mysterious “service desk” when assessments are paused and restarted; other aspects of the class timetable such as music, art, environmental studies, health and wellbeing are pushed aside to make way for SNSAs. Teachers are already discussing whether they need to assess the way they did before (continuously and deeply) now that they are doing the SNSAs.
Certainly, I for one, have not heard any teacher describe themselves as being “very pleased” with the information they provide. Maybe Mr Swinney is speaking to different teachers? Possibly. But if so, where is the evidence of this? He is clearly a man who likes data. Can he show me his data that would reassure me that the 460 respondents were just the disgruntled few? I would argue that after a very busy and exhausting school year, 460 angry EIS members is just the tip of the iceberg.
READ MORE: Testing times demand a grown-up debate about measuring P1s progress
Today a majority of MSPs sided against the SNP in demanding that they be scrapped (albeit the opportunistic Scottish Tories did so despite their previous ideology). Last week my party leader, Nicola Sturgeon, was asked during FMQs if she would respect such a result. Her answer was that she looked forward to making the case for retaining them…
I will give my answer much more plainly. If the SNP do not respect today's decision made by the Scottish Parliament to scrap P1 tests, I will cease to be a member of the SNP. I’m confident that many in a similar position will follow.
Carolyn Ritchie
Glasgow
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