Key Stage 2 SATs 'misrepresent children's abilities'
Alison Bennett
Monday, August 4, 2008
Ninety per cent of secondary schools find Key Stage 2 SATs results do not reflect pupils' true abilities, a report has found.
Fast Track to Slow Progress was published by think tank Civitas to coincide with the publishing of Key Stage 2 SATs results.
The study was based on a nationwide survey of 107 secondary schools and revealed that nine out of 10 secondary school teachers felt they could not rely on SATs results.
The report showed that 79 per cent of secondary school teachers found that up to a third of their Year 7 year-group's abilities were lower than their Key Stage 2 SATs results, this last school year.
It stated that teaching to the test or "coaching" is seen to be the number-one reason for inflated Key Stage 2 results.
Anastasia de Waal, head of family and education at Civitas and the report's author, said: "The Key Stage 2 SATs have become little more than vanity testing: proof for the government of rising standards in primary schools, which the consumers of these results - secondary schools - aren't buying."
