Wednesday 13 February 2008

SAT's crazy

According to David Gee, managing director of the National Assessment Agency, children should be able to sit their national tests at any day of the year that teachers think they are ready. "My personal view is that it should be when ready on a daily basis", he proclaims. Fine in theory - and the government is moving towards progress tests which could be sat on a number of set days each year - but perhaps Mr Gee could explain (1) how the tests can still be externally marked (2) how cheating can be avoided, unless there are hundreds of different papers and (3) how schools are supposed to cope with the resulting chaos? But perhaps the director of the National Assessment Agency doesn't really believe in national tests at all? I think we should be told.

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