National Standardised Assessments in Scotland: purpose and use

The Scottish National Standardised Assessments (SNSA) and the Measaidhean Coitcheann Nàiseanta airson Foghlam tron Ghàidhlig (MCNG) are low stakes assessments designed to provide schools and local authorities with indicative, diagnostic information about learner strengths and development needs. Learners undertake online SNSA/ MCNG assessments as part of their routine classroom activity in P1, P4, P7 and S3.

The SNSA and MCNG are a formative assessment tool designed to assess aspects of literacy and numeracy providing information on learners directly to teachers. The SNSA and MCNG uses a standard assessment platform so that children all undertake the assessments in the same format. National Standardised Assessment data is not published nationally.

Introduction

The purpose and use of National Standardised Assessment in Scotland must be considered within the wider context of the assessment model for the Broad General Education.

Assessment is an integral part of everyday learning and teaching.  It helps to provide a picture of a child or young person's progress and achievements and to identify next steps in learning.  Assessment supports learning and the development of the curriculum.  Practice is most effective where teachers use a wide range of assessment approaches flexibly to identify strengths, learning needs and appropriate support.

The Scottish assessment model places teacher professional judgement at the heart of the process. It is teachers who are best placed to make judgements associated with learner’s progression as a result of accessing a wide range of information on progress and achievement.

The Scottish Government is clear that the key measure of children’s progress in literacy and numeracy is the annual Achievement of Curriculum for Excellence levels (ACEL) data collection, which is based entirely on teachers’ professional judgement and provides data at school, local and national level. 

The place of National Standardised Assessment in the Scottish assessment model

The SNSA and MCNG were established to support teachers by providing nationally consistent and standard information on children’s strengths and development needs in some aspects of literacy and numeracy.

While questions are aligned to the literacy and numeracy standards set out in the relevant benchmarks, the standardised assessments cover only some aspects of the literacy and numeracy curriculum. 

They do not provide a comprehensive picture of children’s progress. They provide one piece of assessment information for teachers to consider and use as part of a range of evidence to plan next steps in learning. National Standardised Assessment outcomes should contribute and add to a teacher’s understanding of children’s progress but do not replace or undermine teachers’ own judgments.

National Standardised Assessments should be used for formative purposes

The SNSA and MCNG is used to inform future steps in learning by providing indicative, diagnostic information about learner strengths and development needs, standardised assessments give teachers the chance to confirm or identify and address gaps in understanding, or to add greater challenge as appropriate, whether at an individual or group level. The provision of clear feedback to learners and the shared planning of next steps helps to maximise learning.

National Standardised Assessment data may be used to help inform summative evaluations

The SNSA and MCNG data should only ever be considered as part of a range of assessment information available to teachers when making their judgements.  No judgements about a child should be made or decisions about their future learning journey taken on the basis of National Standardised Assessment outcomes only.  The SNSA and MCNG can therefore help to inform, but are not in themselves definitive, when teachers consider summative evaluations.

The National Standardised Assessments are adaptive assessments

The SNSA and MCNG are adaptive assessments rather than pass/fail assessments. They have been designed to respond to a learner’s answers as they progress through the assessment, so questions will become easier or harder depending on the previous answers that learners have given. In this way, the learner should experience some questions that can be challenging but many more questions that they can answer. The teacher receives an immediate detailed report on what a learner can and can’t do.

Administering National Standardised Assessments in Scotland

The SNSA and MCNG should be part of routine classroom activity. They do not require any special preparation and should not be carried out in a way that creates tension or stress for children and young people. Children and young people should be provided with the same level of support they would typically receive in the classroom. Teachers and schools, in conjunction with advice from the local authority, can administer the SNSA/MCNG at a time of their choosing. The decision should be made after considering the individual needs of learners, the diagnostic purpose of the SNSA/MCNG and how teachers and schools intend to use information. When completed earlier in the academic year, the assessments can provide information on a learner’s area of strengths and development needs to suggest next steps in learning. When completed later in the academic year, they can help to inform teachers’ own judgement of the learner’s progress, highlight any anomalies and support transitions. SNSA/MCNG data can be compared against time referenced national norms.

Consideration should also be made of the logistics and management of administering the assessments and the Information Technology skills required.

The use of National Standardised Assessment information

The information provided by the SNSA/MCNG has been designed to be used in a number of ways. The data can help teachers by:

• providing information about what learners can and can’t do in some aspects of numeracy and literacy at a particular moment in time
• enabling them to identify key strengths and development needs and identify next steps for learning
• contributing towards the range of assessment information being considered by teachers when making judgements on achieving a level

It can also help school leaders by:

• offering a standardised form of assessment linked to the CfE benchmarks
• showing how well learners perform in relation to a number of characteristics, for example free school meal entitlement - this information can be used to target support, for example in reducing the poverty related attainment gap
• providing information about how learners progress over time
• informing teaching and learning discussions amongst school staff leading to changes of approach or learning and teaching policy where appropriate
• providing clusters of teachers or schools with comparable information on learner’s strengths and development needs in aspects of literacy and numeracy
• identifying joint improvement priorities and support transitions from one stage to another

How National Standardised Assessment can help local authorities

While the data provided by the SNSA/MCNG is primarily intended for use by teachers and school leaders, it also has value for local authorities and national agencies.

The data can help local authorities by providing information which can be part of the evidence considered when having conversations about school improvement. It can also help identify effective practice to disseminate as well as possible areas for authority wide professional learning.

National benefits of National Standardised Assessment

National Standardised Assessment can provide Education Scotland and the Scottish Government with national trend information on aspects of curriculum areas in Literacy and Numeracy. This can be used to support professional learning and national improvement strategies which aim to lead to increased standards in literacy and numeracy.

National Standardised Assessment - dos and don’ts

Do: plan the SNSA/MCNG as part of routine teaching, learning and assessment.

Don’t: set up the SNSA/MCNG as a special or stand-alone activity.

Do: remember that the SNSA/MCNG only assess some aspects of the literacy and numeracy curriculum.

Don’t: consider SNSA/MCNG outcomes as the sole means of identifying whether learners have achieved CfE levels.

Do: administer the SNSA/MCNG at a time of your choosing, based on how you will use the diagnostic information.

Don’t: limit SNSA/MCNG to an assessment window unless agreed in consultation at school or local authority level.

Do: use the SNSA/MCNG diagnostic information to identify potential areas of strength and areas for development in learning.

Don’t: use the SNSA/MCNG data in isolation or as a definitive evaluation.  Always use as part of a range of evidence.

Do: use the SNSA/MCNG to plan next steps in learning.

Don’t: make judgements solely on SNSA/MCNG data.

Do: use the SNSA/MCNG to compare individuals with national norms.

Don’t: use the SNSA/MCNG to compare groups or schools.

Do: use the analysis from SNSA/MCNG as part of improvement strategies in your class or school.

Don’t: rely solely on SNSA/MCNG for progression analysis, use as part of wider monitoring and tracking approaches.

Do: use the SNSA/MCNG data in moderation activities.

Don’t: treat SNSA/MCNG data as different to other evidence of learning.

Do: use SNSA/MCNG data to support your professional judgment of learner’s progress, alongside all other evidence

Don’t: use SNSA/MCNG data to replace teacher professional judgments.

Do: place the SNSA/MCNG within your school’s wider assessment policy.

Don’t: use SNSA/MCNG in isolation from other assessment activities

Do: consider how to report the SNSA/MCNG information to parents/carers, as part of ongoing, holistic feedback processes.

Don’t: overemphasise the role of the SNSA/MCNG information with parents/carers.

Do: use SNSA/MCNG data as part of information for transition.

Don’t: rely only on SNSA/MCNG as valid transition information