Education Statement Welsh Assembly

Thank you Debbie dib residing officer. The word -- thank you

Debbie keep presiding officer. -- deputy residing others.

... Uniquely demonstrates that the quality of teaching and learning

cannot be separated. Assessment for learning means that teaching is

always adaptive and specific to the learners needs and supporting

raising standards for everyone. The recent OECD report recognised that a

commitment to improving the teaching and learning in our schools is

visible at all levels of our education system and the report

recommended that the focus of our reforms should be on developing a

high-quality teaching profession, making leadership a key driver for

reform and making sure that equity and learning opportunities and

student well-being and moving towards a new system of assessment

evaluation and accountability that aligns with the new 21st-century

curriculum. I spoke about our plans to develop leadership to the chamber

last week, and today I want to focus on assessment. What good assessment

looks like and what we have done to date and what we will do to take

forward a new assessment and evaluation framework. And along the

way, I would also like to bust a few myths about our national tests.

High-quality ongoing assessment has a crucial role in teaching, learning

and in raising standards, and it should be a natural and integral

feature of classroom practice, and future assessment arrangements will

give priority to this. We are working with schools and regional

consortiums and taken the advice of international assessment experts

such as Dylan William and John Hattie to make sure that there is a

new emphasis on assessment for learning and that the learner is at

the heart of our proposals. Assessment for learning is

responsive teaching and it is the bridge between teaching and the way

we would discover -- the way where we discover what was intended, and

it can drive progress and race achievement for all of our learners.

-- raise. The prime purpose is to provide information that can guide

decisions about how best to progress young people's learning and to

report to their parents and carers on that progress. By so doing,

assessments should improve learners learning and teachers teaching and

parents and carers and understanding. The search has shown

that assessment for learning offers us and effective way to reach our

goals for a high performing education system, that provides

learners with the means to become lifelong learners. Learners who are

given high-quality feedback and who understand where they are in their

learning and where they need to go next and crucially how they get

there, they are the most likely to make the most improvement. As you

will be aware from my recent statement, one of the most exciting

developments in the years ahead is the transition from traditional

paper reading and numerous sea tests that learners sit, to an online

personal adaptive assessment -- new Morrissey tests.

Adjusting to provide appropriate challenge for each individual. This

means that all learners will be presented with questions that match

and challenge their individual skills in reading and numeracy.

Schools will receive high-quality tailored information about each

learner that they can use as additional evidence to plan the next

steps for teaching and learning. The tests will be self marking and

compatible with schools information management systems and teachers and

learners will have high-quality immediate and specific feedback

giving them a better picture of strengths and weaknesses and there

are many advantages to personalised assessments, but let me be clear,

the current paper tests share exactly the same purpose. There are

still a few myths doing the rounds when it comes to the national tests

and I would like to take this opportunity to set the record

straight. Firstly, the tests are completely different from Sats in

England. Our tests were implemented to support teaching and learning and

were never intended to be high stakes. The test results are not

used by Welsh government to Judge school performance and the key to

our approach is that the focus is on what the tests tell teachers which

is then used to help shape planning for learners neck steps and to

develop core skills and knowledge -- next steps. We know at the moment

assessment for learning is not always understood or embedded across

every school. And that is why I have re-focused activity to improve

confidence in its use. Earlier this year I ended the programme of

external verification and outlined our intentions to put in place a

programme that would maintain the original aim of improving teacher

assessment, that with more focus on the needs of teachers and their

professional learning, we have made changes to the reporting on the

national numeracy framework and Auschwitz calls were notified they

were only going ... And language, literacy and

communication and mathematical development in the development

phase, and taking away the expectation of literacy and numeracy

reports across the curriculum will allow schools to focus efforts on

literacy and numeracy development and effective curriculum planning.

In a coherent and collective approach to raising standards and

expectations, assessment and accountability is critical to our

ongoing reforms and the development and deliverability of the new

curriculum, but in the past the lines between the two have been

blurred leading to negative and unintended consequences in the

classroom and a lack of focus on standards and in the next few weeks

I will make further announcements on accountability. Taken together these

will reckon and promote high-quality teaching and learning so that we

raise standards -- these will recognise and promote. Thank you.

Thank you, Cabinet Secretary, for your statement, and giving the

advance notice of it. We would all agree in this chamber that we want

to see a rigorous assessment process in Wales which is fair to the

learner and which helps to inform teachers about how best to respond

to their needs but which also acts as a benchmarking system across the

whole of Wales so that we can compare and contrast performance

both between pupils within schools and indeed compare and contrast

performance between different schools. We know that the current

system isn't perfect. There's far too much self-evaluation, if you

like, within the current system and not enough in terms of

standardisation, and that is why I was brave pleased to welcome the

shift to more responsive and personalised testing online when the

Cabinet Secretary announced it earlier this year. I think that is a

step in the right direction. But I will say, that what we must also not

be afraid to do is to continue to put our children and our young

people in examination type situations with paper tests because

at the end of the day those high-stakes paper tests they will be

doing when they get to GCSE age and A-level age they will be less fazed

they have had experience of being sat in a test like situation, and so

it is important that they have the experience of those tests in the

classroom and in the schools at different points. I know you like to

draw the distinction between the Sats tests in England and the ones

we have had traditionally in Wales. You say that is not something where

we are going to rank schools, but at the end of the day they do need to

be things which are used to manage performance within schools and to

manage local authority attention to schools and regional Consortium's

attention to schools in weaknesses are identified in those outcomes

will stop it is only right that the outcomes of those tests are shared

with patient because at the end of the day parents should be empowered

to be able to make decisions about which schools they want to see their

children educated in. And the more information they can have, including

information on tests and outcomes from those tests, the better. I

appreciate that you can swing the pendulum too far and just use

markers on things like the achievements of these kind of tests.

And overemphasise them, if you like. And not consider properly other

things in schools, and that is why we've been as a party supportive of

the green amber and red system which has been developed by the Welsh

government and it is important that is also a robust system. I know

Cabinet Secretary, you want that to be a robust system which reflects

the performance of schools, but do not forget, the results that

children and young people have in tests like the ones we are talking

about today, the assessment for learning, they are an important

indicator in terms of school performance and we must not ignore

them. We know that the OECD told us that there are many teachers at all

levels who lack the skills to implement quality formative

assessments and use that assessment data to support students in their

learning, and I think it is only right to pick up on that point. I

was pleased that you made reference to the OECD and the work they are

doing. To oversee the implementation of this work in the future. We know

also, from the recent education workforce council survey, of the

education workforce in Wales, that one of the other problems we have is

communicating to our teachers. About the changes that are taking place in

Wales in our education system. I wonder whether you can tell us how

you are going to insure there is an appropriate response from the

teaching workforce, to these new testing regimes, as they are being

rolled out in Wales? What you are going to do to monitor the way the

teaching workforce is using the information in a confident way, to

change their practice, so they can support learners better? What

assurances you can give us, as an assembly, that we are not completely

ditching the paper tests in literacy, numeracy, and all the

other subjects, save our children can still be well prepared as they

get on into later life, to take those high-stakes tests, that will

come down the line. Thank you, Darren for your questions. I had

hoped that the statement this afternoon would be able to help

develop a broader understanding of the difference between assessment

for learning, which is a crucial part of how we raise standards in

schools, and how that is a very different beast to accountability.

The fact that the two have been melded together in the past some of

it in reality, some of the inmates, and the minds of practitioners, is

why, and one of the reasons we're not making the progress we need, let

me make it absolutely clear, we need accountability in the Welsh

education system. We know from past experience, what happens when that

accountability is taken away. I will continue to ensure that our schools

and regional consortium have to account for their performance.

Accountability measures have to be the right ones. It has to be

divorced from the principles of assessment from learning. We will

continue to provide a holistic view of how individual schools are

performing. I will continue to develop a robust inspection regime,

by testing, and giving parents the information they need when looking

at prospective schools for their children. There is more we can do to

improve categorisation, and potentially how we can improve the

inspection regime also. Let me be clear, assessment for learning is

not part of that accountability regime. It is simply not a robust

way, not a robust way to use assessment tests to judge the

performance of our school. Cohorts can be very different. I visited a

school in Swansea, last week and they are significantly behind

development wise, then you would expect in the Welsh population.

Dixie percent of those pupils are on free school meals. That is very

different from a school in the same local education authority. Relying

on scores from standardised testing is not the right way to judge. How

we monitor the school is the progress they have made. It was

recently given a good evaluation by the testers, because of the progress

they have made for those children. It would not be right to use

individual test scores to judge the performance of the school. But

parents need to know. There are no plans to stop parents from given

access to their children's test scores. Important as a parent, and I

am one myself, whose children have sat the assessments recently.

Important to me to know where my child is. To have a standardised

benchmark assessment, to work alongside the individual teacher

assessments. The paper tests will be phased out. They will be phased out

to an online adaptive system. One of the problems with the current

testing, it does not take into account where a child is. We could

have a child of additional learning needs, sitting down in front of a

test, and cannot answer the first question. That potentially is

damaging to a char's confidence. The questions will adapt to the

adaptability of the children, pushing them, to see how much they

can do. Good news for all children. So they can get better and accurate

picture of where the child is. The idea that children will be

completely phase if they sit there in front of an exam paper and 16th,

it is fanciful, Darren. The reality is, teachers in high schools prepare

their pupils for sitting exams with mock papers, mock exams, they

happen. We have two divorce the two. There is professional learning, we

need to get self-assessment better. Continued moderation is really

important. By moving some of the emphasis away, that gives us more

time for teachers to develop their skills in this area. As you know, we

have put them side - ?6 for the Conservative professional learning

funds. Five people waiting to the statement. We said in the successful

futures report, that's a satisfaction is one of the strongest

messages he received. Good to see messages he received. Good to see

this as being pursued. I'm fearful of Saint or tests after that

exchange. It has been given a decent airing, I will not pursue it to. The

frequency test should be kept to a minimum, in view of the impact on

the curriculum. The danger is people are taught to test, all of a sudden

you find yourself going off on a tangent. Not focusing on the work

that needs to be done. I did not hear you mention self-assessment.

Clearly, they are important factors in encouraging children and young

people to take greater responsibility for their own

learning. My children have a learning success criteria dei

adhered to. They are given a task they they have to achieve, they have

to understand how to achieve it, and what they will demonstrate from. I'm

sure you will be us about the importance of self-assessment.

Teachers have their professional learning passports, very different

potentially for pupils. Maybe even electronic portfolios. I wonder

where we are giving on that, whether that is something you are actively

pursuing or not? Your statement talks of an online adaptive

personalised assessment. Teachers and learners having high-quality,

immediate specific feedback. Donaldson mentioned we should

increase the use of digital media, and explore the opportunities to

improve the immediacy of feedback to parents and carers. This could be

extending to a lone parents access so they can in real-time track the

development of children. Whether there is a public facing element

which could be used in that respect. Moving to more than automated online

system, clearly has its strengths. I'm looking for reassurance, and I'm

sure you will give it to me. We will not take our eye off the ball, it in

continuing to build teachers ability to assess. That is something we need

to be wary of. The children meeting committee had been scrutinising the

lamentation of the new curriculum. We heard contrasting views of the

relationship between the design of the curriculum and setting the

assessment framework. Some people saying, tell us what you want to

assess, we will design you are curriculum. Other people saying, and

rightly in my view, that the purpose driven curriculum starts with

purposes, proceeding from there. A somewhat discombobulated response to

the committee committee is not a chicken or egg, it is chicken and

egg at the same time. I'm not sure whether that is possible. I would

like to reassure us that the sector is getting the clarity needs. We

touched on that somewhat earlier. The processes we have been moving

awards are not appropriate for the new curriculum. Thank you very much

for those questions and observations. You are quite right,

Professor Donaldson told us the frequency of testing should be kept

to a minimum. Also very clear on his report, external standardised

testing provides important benchmarking information, and should

be used in cooperation with school tests and teacher feedback. He said

in a way should we be stopping national tests. He saw it as part of

a holistic national picture. What Professor Donaldson recommended in

his report, and I quote, innovative approaches to assessment, including

interactive approaches should be developed. Our move to interactive

online testing is in response to a recommendation made in that report.

You are absolutely clear, if you look at pretty pictures about what

assessment for learning actually looks like. One of the crucial

components is peer review, and children looking critically at their

own work, and indeed help mark the workaday classmate alongside them. I

don't know whether you're children use the tickled pink, green for

growth method, allowing them to use pink highlighters to highlight the

good bits, green highlighter to identify the bits that need to grow

and improve. It is a very important part of a strategy of developing

that self critique. And the ability to criticise. Many innovative ways

of using it. The classes getting an answer right all the time, who is

learning? Sometimes we need to get things wrong, to identify what led

us to give that answer. Lots of different approaches. The ability to

engage children in that, not simply have their work marked by a teacher,

reported on by teacher, but able to look critically at their own work,

crucially important. You talked about professional learning

passports, there is absolutely a role for the professional learning

passports. I think we can do better than me have it at the moment. I

don't think it is in the optimum stage, to get teachers to engage

with it. For children's say, many schools imply strategies for

compiling E portfolios. Only this morning, I was discussing the use of

building blocks, developed by a local company. Using that to capture

and record work. People reflect, share it with other classmates. Send

it home. I'm looking at what more we can do to use that kind of

technology in our learning. One of the significant improvements that

online testing, adaptive testing, it will bring more timely responses.

You though the tests were set by our children a number of weeks ago, I

don't know that the scores in your area, but I will get my children's

test on the last week of term. The last week of term. Little time to go

into school, have a discussion with the teacher. This summer holidays

come, the momentum is lost. One of the benefits of moving to this

system is that you will have instantaneous results. Schools will

be able to do it at times of the year suits them and their children.

I am hoping one of the benefits of moving to this gives us greater

flexibility, allowing for greater parental engagement in discussing

test results with their schools. That is crucial. We know, after the

quality of the teacher in the classroom, parental engagement in

your child's education is the second most important factor. We had to

find new and innovative ways to encourage parents to be engaged in

the children's education. Digitally. How many school days to see outside,

everyone is on the smartphone. We need to increase conversations

between schools and parents regarding their children's learning.

We need to do more in terms of professional teaching to support

teachers skills, and as I said in my statement, it is not as embedded as

I would like it to be, and this will continue some of the ongoing

conversations we have had with regional consortia around

professional learning. What comes first, and how do we assess a new

curriculum, and one of the lessons I think we have learned from Scotland

is that they develop their curriculum and then thought about

the assessment later, and that has been one of the problems that the

Scottish education system has suffered. So we are looking at

assessment and evaluation as we develop the curricula, so we are

mindful of the fact that we need to have purpose pays, but also are

mindful of how we assess for that and how will be test for that as we

develop it, so that work is ongoing in conjunction with the work on

everything else, so if we leave this until the end I think we will defeat

the purpose of what the assessment is about. Assessment should be an

integral part of teachers practice in the classroom and not an add on.

Finally, Michelle Brown. Thank you. While I support the use of the

latest technology in the classroom it must always remain in the way

that improves education for the child and does not just alleviate

the teachers workload. The answer should be more teachers and not more

computers, because there's no substitute for the praise of a

teacher who is respected by pupils and a computer can never give

encouragement that a teacher can. On the one hand we are telling parents

it is a bad idea for their children to spend too much time in front of

their computers but when it suits us we encourage it in the classroom,

and by increasing the use of computers for assessment we are

downgrading the status of teachers and encouraging isolation in the

classroom when we should be fostering interaction. Apple was

meant to be a gift for the teacher, not a replacement for them, and I

welcome that the Cabinet Secretary Phileas personalised assessment but

I would question whether this is a new thing -- values personalised

assessment. Surely they have been doing this since the profession

began. As regards the Cabinet Secretary's attempt to differentiate

tests that school pupils in England and Wales sit I would say it is

irrelevant to the child what the school would do with any of those

results, and a test is a test from the point of the person sitting at.

I would like to address the Cabinet Secretary what thoughts as she had

on making sure that children remain Primeira Liga taught by teachers and

not computers -- remain primarily taught. And have you asked the young

people and their parents for their thoughts on the increasing android

eyes Asian of their education? -- and android -isation. This is not

about replacing teachers with computers, this is about supplying

teachers with instantaneous good-quality information about the

abilities of an individual child. Something that at the moment we do

in one way but I think we can improve upon it. As I said in my

statement, the purpose of these tests is absolutely about the child

and it is about having the information that we need for

teachers and parents to assess how we count that child to develop more.

The fact that actually introduces workload on teachers gives us better

quality information and a better time frame, are some of the other

reasons why this is the good thing to do. But I try to judge myself in

everything I do on the basis of the mantra, child first and always. And

I judge that moving to these systems is better for individual children in

Wales. We are all concerned about screen time for children and the

impact on digital technology on children's lives and we have spent

time in this chamber debating that. We acknowledged there are benefits

and this benefits but let me be clear, this is a test over a short

period of time that probably most schools will decide to do only once

a year. This is not sitting children in front of a screen for hours and

hours and hours. I would reiterate, this is not about replacing teachers

with computers and this is allowing us to harness the power of new

technology to help teachers do even better for the children in their

classroom. Thank you very much, Cabinet Secretary.