It is decades since Paul Black and Dylan Wiliam opened up the ‘Black Box’ to reveal the crucial importance of assessment as learning, but it would appear the messages from said box were not heeded. In each decade since, the topic of assessment has been consumed by the fiery debate of high stakes testing, accountability …
Let me recall a tale of two Parents’ Evenings. My colleague attended the usual fare at his son’s primary school and he learnt that his son was working at a level 1a in reception literacy. When he probed about what that really meant and what he could do as a parent the teacher was somewhat flummoxed. …
Does a steepling pile of marking like this loom large in your nightmares? The effect of good quality written feedback is one of those few constants that most teachers can agree has a positive impact on our students’ learning. With this universal truth acknowledged, we create assessment policies and armies of teachers scratch away in the books of …
“We need to switch to a different conception of children’s ability. Every child, during Primary, being capable of anything, depending upon the effort that they have put in and how it is presented to them. Levels have really been getting in the way of this. What we want is a model of ability based on …
Breaking the Shackles of National Curriculum Levels Read More »
