Improving education

Standardised assessments will help empower schools to tackle the attainment gap and drive improvements in education, Deputy First Minister John Swinney has said.

Online assessments, which have been available since 24 August, help teachers judge how well children are doing in reading, writing and numeracy and plan next steps in their learning.

Speaking at an international education improvement conference in Glasgow, Mr Swinney confirmed the Scottish Government will only have access to data at a national level and will not collect detailed information about the performance of individual pupils or schools.

The DFM said:

“This government is putting more power and money into the hand of schools and teachers and it is crucial they understand what is working well to drive improvement and tackle the attainment gap.

“Scottish National Standardised Assessments (SNSA) give teachers objective and comparable information that will assist teachers in identifying specific needs of our young people in fulfilling their potential. We have already had very positive feedback from them about level of detail telling them where pupils are succeeding  or where they require further development. This data is clearly useful for schools and local authorities. 

“The Scottish Government will have access to national level data only, to help us identify trends, including strengths and weaknesses in particular aspects of literacy and numeracy. This will, in turn, inform national policy, and drive support and improvement priorities to enhance the education and life chances of our young people.”