P1 tests for children are vital, insists professor
A LEADING academic has defended controversial tests for P1 children as a vital way of gauging their skills and ability.
Professor Lindsay Paterson said opposition to the move was driven by ‘Scotland’s insular self-regard about its politics and its education system’.
While he criticised the way the SNP has handled the introduction of the tests, he said they were also crucial because ‘without evidence we can’t hold politicians to account’.
Professor Paterson’s intervention comes as opposition to the scheme grows at Holyrood, with critics claiming that standardised testing traumatises five-year-old pupils.
Last night Scottish Tory education spokesman Liz Smith insisted that the tests ‘have not only proved difficult to administer but are not procan’t viding the most meaningful educational outcomes for five-year-olds’.
She said: ‘We firmly believe that there has to be a different approach in P1 compared to what happens further on in school.
‘The Scottish Conservatives will use our party business to demonstrate the educational evidence in this regard and why it has led to so much concern amongst teachers.’
Writing in today’s Mail, Professor Paterson, an education expert at the University of Edinburgh, says: ‘The dominant Scottish view is that we know already what to do to improve, and that we don’t need scientific evidence, or at least don’t need it until children leave school altogether.
‘That might just about be tenable if things were rosy, but we know from international comparative evidence that they aren’t.
‘The simple fact is that education do without tests.’ But the education expert claims that ‘the Scottish Government’s secrecy around the details of these tests does not help its case’.
Professor Paterson also warns that ‘even more disturbing is the potential spill-over effect on attitudes to testing in general’.
He writes: ‘If the anxiety caused to five-year-olds by tests is harmful to their education, then why is there any less harm from test anxiety at ages eight, 11, 14, or indeed in Nationals and Highers?’
And the academic concludes: ‘Scottish education is not disastrous, but it’s mediocre. It certainly could do much better. Only reliable data from scientifically standardised tests can enable us to learn from both the failures and the successes.’
Earlier this week, Nicola Sturgeon was branded ‘deluded’ after rejecting calls to scrap P1 tests.
MSPs from every opposition party at Holyrood signed a Labour motion demanding that standardised assessments for P1 pupils are scrapped.
But Miss Sturgeon defended the tests, insisting they only use up one hour of class time per year, are ‘not high-stakes testing’ and help teachers spot development problems.
Scottish Lib Dem leader Willie Rennie said: ‘The First Minister is deeply deluded as to the scale of classroom time being wasted by P1 tests.’
Last night a Scottish Government spokesman said: ‘We welcome this recognition from Lindsay Paterson that the standardised assessments are a valuable tool for teachers.
‘Standardised assessments are formative, diagnostic and are delivered as part of everyday learning providing consistent evidence for teachers to identify the next steps in a child’s learning, which is especially valuable in the early years if we are to continue to close the attainment gap.’