A recent report has cast doubts over the reliability of teachers’ National Standards assessments and rises in student achievement.
It found that just 40 per cent of overall teacher judgments (OTJs) matched the ratings generated by the Progress and Consistency Tool (PaCT), a tool developed to improve the consistency of teacher judgments on National Standards assessments.
The PaCT was launched in schools in last year with a mathematics pilot. The latest report of the National Standards: School Sample Monitoring & Evaluation Project 2010-2013 compared the judgments from the pilot with a selection of teacher judgments finding significant variance.
In the past, I have expressed interest in PaCT as a way of standardising National Standards a bit more. But it would seem that even with the tool, getting a consistent standard among teachers, and students, is flawed.
What I find interesting there is a move in education to individual education programmes, individual assessments, and student centred learning initiatives, yet as our main form of reporting and assessment we are putting them in boxes, and grouping them together, using a ‘one-size-fits-all’ grading system and tool.
What are your thoughts on the PaCT tool? Have you been to any workshops? Have you seen it in action?