Oral question asked in the House of Lords, by Lord Dearing (Crossbench). It was answered on Tuesday, 27 November 2007.

Schools: Testing

Question: My Lords, will the Minister consider whether a possibly unintended consequence of the present emphasis on SATs and league tables is that schools may tend to concentrate on pupils who are near the borderline to the detriment of those who are underperforming and form part of our scandalously long tail? Will he also consider whether greater prominence should be given to value added as the true measure of schools’ achievement and accountability in respect of all children?

Answer: My Lords, it is precisely to seek to meet the concerns expressed by the noble Lord that we are taking forward the Making Good Progress pilots, which introduce single-level tests in primary schools. Children are entered for them when they are ready for them rather than, as they do at the moment, taking the single key stage 1 and key stage 2 tests at the ages of seven and 11. These tests are being piloted in 460 primary schools and the project is taking place over the next two years. We will, of course, carefully evaluate the results.

Secondary information