Jonathan Savage

It was great to receive a copy of Martin Fautley’s new book today. Congratulations on this excellent book Martin. There is lots of value here and I know that music teachers will find it really useful. Assessment is such a contentious area but Martin gives clear, practical advice to music teachers  Basically, music teachers should be making much more use of assessment for learning techniques, periodic assessment and looking at how other subjects handle assessment at Key Stage 3. The QCA has lots of good advice about this on the new National Curriculum website. NAME published a very helpful document written byDr Martin Fautley (available from their website), and you could also read the book Martin and I wrote on this. Here’s the link.

You’ve got four weeks to comment on the ‘new’ subject level descriptors and attainment target. You can find all the necessary information here. Whilst not wanting to pre-judge anyone’s comments, I found it very hard to find anything but minor changes in the new level descriptions as compared to those that accompany the latest revision of the new National Curriculum in 2007  (which didn’t change them in any meaningful way from the previous version in 2000). Given all incessant debate about these levels and how they should be used or not used, it seems that we have missed a real opportunity here to change something that is the bane of many teachers’ lives. It is disappointing to say the least.

On a related matter, there is an interesting reference in the letter from the QCDA to Ed Balls about APP:

It seems that there is a move to shy away from dictating to schools the precise approach that they should conducting teacher asessment at Key Stage 3. It is all ‘as you are then’ to my mind. My response: what a wasted opportunity.

At the end of the tax year here in the UK, it was nice to receive a royalty cheque for two books I have co-written with my colleague Martin Fautley. Both were for the same published and released around about the same time. Can someone explain to me why the book on assessment has sold eight times as many copies as the book for creativity? Same authors. Same publisher. Is it is a sad indictment on the current state of education in our country?

Following held conversations over recent weeks, and having sat in various meetings, it seems certain that the new assessment framework for Key Stage 3 foundation subjects is going to be based around the principles of APP (Assessing Pupils’ Progress). This has been trialled in Key Stage 3 core subjects and the QCA are promoting it heavily. You can find a basic introductory guide here. This methodology has also been used extensively in the primary curriculum to assess pupils’ progress in the core subjects. You can read about this here. The official QCA guide to this at Key Stage 3 is here. According to the QCA website, the new materials for foundation subjects at Key Stage 3 will be available later this year, but I understand that this is not going to happen. Rather, they will be made available mid to late 2010.

On the positive side, APP is a move towards a greater degree of personalised learning with a significantly more formative edge that documents pupils’ progress over the longer term. This is well suited for music educators. It seems a move in the right direction and should do away with the ludicrous practices of assessment that many teachers seem to think they have to implement in their departments to provide ‘data’ for their senior managers. On the other hand, APP still has a criterion statements that, if teachers and managers don’t fully understand or implement properly, could be abused and used in a way to continue existing practices. This would be most unhelpful. I would urge all teachers to see this as a step forward in the debacle about assessment in music at Key Stage 3. Used constructively and skilfully, it should be a powerful tool in a teacher’s arsenal.

Futurelab has just published its latest Assessment Literature Review, commissioned from academic researchers to offer a route map through the vast body of research into education and technology with a view to social justice.

Social justice refers to the concept of a society affording individuals’ and groups’ fair treatment and an impartial share of the benefits of that society. It is crucial in relation to children and young people who have little control over their environment or circumstances, and have little say over much of what happens to them in schools in the name of testing and assessment.

If we want to create an education system that fully assesses all learners, then we need to support any form of assessment that has the potential to reduce the effects of a variety of disadvantages that learners may experience and explore what role technologies might play.

You can download the report from here.