Testing to Destruction
This report makes a number of interlinked points which remain as valid today as in 2002 when the report was first published.
1) There is substantial overtesting of pupils by public examinations in England, which not only kills pupils’ motivation and exaggerates the gap between high and low achievers but has exponentially increased teachers’ workload.
2) The use of tests and examinations as the root of schools’ national accountability through the publication of performance tables has invested assessment and curriculum delivery with ‘high-stakes’ consequences for pupils, schools and teachers within schools.
3) The use of tests in this high-stakes environment has the effect of distorting assessment and teachers’ professional autonomy to one based on teaching to the test.
4) The curriculum is overburdened with too great an emphasis on assessment and testing which maintains the narrow focus on academic learning rather than including vocational learning.
5) There are increased workload demands for schools and teachers from the administration of the examinations and testing system, including invigilation of examinations and the associated growth of costs and paperwork.
