Assessment should serve learning, not the spreadsheet

How do we know what pupils have learned?

It sounds simple. But once we unpick it, things get complicated. Because assessment is not the same as data collection. And feedback is not the same as marking. And a number on a spreadsheet is not the same as understanding.

Across Key Stage 3, we’ve accumulated assessment practices that began with good intentions. We wanted to know how pupils were getting on. We wanted to identify gaps. We wanted to reassure parents and governors.

But over time, the system has become heavier than the learning it was meant to support.

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Teachers spend hours generating grades that aren’t always as reliable as they appear. Leaders pore over spreadsheets that may not be telling them what they think. Pupils receive marks but don’t always get the time or clarity to act on them.

The danger is that the numbers look precise. But precision is not the same as accuracy.

One helpful distinction: data collection gives us snapshots. Assessment practice is the ongoing work of finding out what pupils know. Feedback is what helps pupils improve, and what matters is not the volume, but whether pupils understand it and have time to act on it.

We can have a great deal of data and very little assessment. We can have a great deal of marking and very little feedback. And we can have a great deal of activity and very little learning.

The question is always: what changes as a result?

I’ll be exploring this at the Festival of Education, and it’s one of the central themes in KS3: The Ambitious Years — available here.

Until next time

Mary