MAT0011

 

 

Written evidence submitted by GL Assessment

 

Executive Summary

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

GL Assessment is the leading provider of formative assessments and supporting data analysis to UK academies.

 

  1.                    We specialise in SEN, literacy, numeracy, reasoning and attitudinal assessments, and have relationships with over a third of primary and two thirds of secondary schools in the UK. Our tests are nationally standardised, giving measures such as standard age scores, and include parental reporting where appropriate. We have delivered over 7 million online tests to school, colleges and academies in the UK and worldwide.

 

  1.                    We provide training and continual professional development for teachers in the most effective use of formative assessments and the interpretation and analysis of assessment data. A particular emphasis is placed on the ‘triangulation’ methodology of assessment which combines the use of summative and formative assessments alongside teachers’ experiences to most accurately assess the progress of pupils.

 

  1.                    We believe that it is vital to make effective use of the standardised data which emanates from formative assessments. By using standardised data, teachers and schools can compare the progress of pupils taking into account factors such as their age within a year group. Without this standardisation process, data is less reliable and performance cannot be benchmarked nationally.

 

Philosophy of assessment

 

  1.                    GL Assessment has a distinct philosophy of good assessment practice. We believe in a ‘whole pupil’ approach, examining an individual’s attitude, ability and attainment to provide a complete understanding of their needs. This enables schools, academies and colleges to get to know each pupil as an individual, appreciating their strengths, identifying areas where they might need support and intervention, and removing any obstacles that are impacting negatively on attainment. Crucially, this philosophy places the individual pupil at the heart of a school’s programme of assessment.

 

The future of Multi-Academy Trusts

 

  1.                    With all schools required to convert to academy status by 2022, Multi-Academy Trusts will become an important fixture of the education landscape. As the number of MATs increase, many Academy Trusts are wrestling with how best to exploit the leadership opportunities that the MAT model provides.

 

  1.                    Much of this is driven by the current debate about the effectiveness of MATs, including recent contributions from Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Schools. In March, Sir Michael Wilshaw raised concerns that some MATs had developed the same weaknesses as the worst performing local authorities. It is crucial that if MATs are to develop as useful structures on which to base school management, steps are taken to replicate success and spread best practice. One of the specific concerns raised by Sir Michael was that some MATs are failing their most disadvantaged pupils. We believe that data management and a good grounding in assessment practice are essential skills that need to be embedded in every MAT to ensure that they deliver consistent progress and high attainment for all their pupils, including those from the poorest backgrounds.

 

  1.                    Crucially, GL Assessment believes that as academisation continues, MATs will need to be supported to move beyond their role as administrative hubs and towards a more holistic role that focuses on overall educational improvement. This will, of course, add significant additional value as MATs will have the resources, expertise and time to focus on issues such as SEN provision and continued professional development to which individual schools and academies may struggle to commit resources.

 

  1.                    Good assessment practice, as an aspect of educational expertise which is ever changing, complex and traditionally not well supported by initial teacher training or professional development, is another such area that MATs will be able to dedicate time to perfecting, in a way that is possibly beyond individual schools and academies.

 

Use of formative assessment across a MAT

 

  1.                    Formative assessment is already an integral part of day-to-day teaching. MATs are most effective when they triangulate this information gathered at academy level with higher level data from the Trust and national benchmarks to strategically inform the direction of academy management. In order to use formative assessment in this way, the assessments must be consistent, objective and reliable. External standardised assessments such as those developed by GL Assessment are ideal for this purpose as they provide national benchmarks for pupils to offer a robust measure of comparison. It is important however that this kind of assessment is not overused. It does not require much assessment to uncover pupils falling behind or not using their full abilities; ‘assess once and use the data often’ should be the guiding principle.

 

  1.               MATs should develop a common language of assessment between their academies to ensure that their relative levels of attainment and progress are efficiently gathered and directly comparable, allowing academy leaders to clearly identify which academies are performing well and which are underperforming. This approach is particularly important when MATs absorb new and/or underperforming academies.

 

  1.               The Academy Transformation Trust is an example of a Trust that has used a whole-MAT approach to assessment to help raise the standard of its academies. With ten primary, nine secondary and one all-through academy in its family, Academy Transformation Trust spans a large geographical area across the Midlands, East of England and the South East. These academies are predominately based in deprived areas and most come with a history of underachievement.

 

  1.               Lisa Crausby, ATT’s Principal Improvement Director, says, “When we open an academy with a prior legacy of underachievement, the first step is benchmarking the starting point of all the pupils and setting ambitious targets. This is where robust and rigorous assessments come in.”

 

  1.               Academy Transformation Trust takes a whole-pupil approach to assessment by using The Complete Digital Solution – a package of assessments that provides critical insight into pupils’ ability, attainment and barriers to learning. The Complete Digital Solution includes the Cognitive Abilities Test: Fourth Edition (CAT4), Progress Test Series (PT Series) and the Pupil Attitudes to Self and School (PASS) attitudinal survey, amongst others.

 

  1.               “Benchmarking by external assessment is important as early on, we discovered different people and different academies had very different understanding of key assessment terminology,” says Lisa.  “So we’ve worked hard to establish a common language and have set up various types of moderation to support the information that is collected. The Complete Digital Solution is a key part. The results provide a snapshot of where each pupil is, gives us a measurement of progress over time and automatically takes care of the moderation and standardisation we require. It promotes the sharing of best practice across The Trust.”

 

  1.               “We’re now in a position to ask the right questions – perhaps why academy A is showing a big discrepancy between teacher assessment and what the progress tests are telling us – and act on the answers,” says Lisa. “To have a marker that everyone across the family of academies is doing enables us to have a real understanding, and allows us to spot any anomalies. It has added a layer of rigour to tracking student progress across the group, and gives us vital information on where there are gaps. In turn, this makes us sharper in terms of intervention strategies.”

 

Identifying ‘hard to spot’ pupils across MATs

 

  1.               As MATs increase in size, there is a risk of size obscuring the view of individual pupils, especially those that are ‘hard to spot’ – either a pupil whose academic strengths are not immediately apparent or perhaps a quiet, diligent pupil who may be struggling with issues that mean they are not achieving their full potential. Standardised tests can help to identify such pupils.
  2.               Bluecoat Academies Trust employs two strategies to identify hard to spot pupils. The first involves the use of the New Group Reading Test (NGRT) to help teachers to diagnose where a pupil’s difficulties might lie. NGRT is a screening and monitoring test for groups of pupils. It assesses reading and comprehension in a single assessment. Test results provide teachers with a comprehensive overview of a pupil’s reading and comprehension ability while providing a wealth of diagnostic information identifying areas where they may be experiencing difficulties.

 

  1.               Steve Cox, Assistant Principal at Bluecoat Academy in Nottingham, part of the Bluecoat MAT, explains how the school is aiming to ensure that all pupils improve their reading by two years in every academic year. He explains, “NGRT is central to helping achieve this – we use it at the beginning and the end of each year, and in the interim to monitor progress. This means every member of staff is able to focus on the different reading ages in the room. For example, in a Year 11 class I teach, two of the 15 students have reading ages of less than seven years old, while the remainder span reading ages of between 14 and 17 years of age. There is no way I could give all the students the same material and expect them to understand it. Knowing the range of reading abilities means we can differentiate the text, personalise resources and provide outstanding lessons.”

 

  1.               Much of the debate around academies has focussed on raising standards, but it is important that Trusts do not lose sight of pastoral care and wellbeing. The Pupil Attitudes to Self and School (PASS) attitudinal survey, which examines many of the non-academic issues that can affect a pupil’s learning, such as confidence and feeling connected, can help teachers identify children who may be dealing with issues that are not so easy to spot.

 

  1.               The second strategy employed by Bluecoat Academy Trust is to use PASS in this way. Using the results of the PASS attitudinal survey, academies in the Bluecoat MAT are able to set up “soft” interventions to deal with the issues uncovered. For example, in the Bluecoat Academy in Nottingham, PASS identified a small cohort of boys with very low expectations of themselves. Teachers were able to run a mentoring programme of just 15 minutes per week, to focus on these boys.

 

  1.               As management of schools and academies transfers to MATs, it is important that the needs of individual pupils are supported in a systematic way across the Trust. A systematic approach guarantees that all academies within the Trust are contributing as best they can to the wellbeing of their pupils, ensuring that no child is left behind.

 

Engaging local communities

  1.               For many parents, academy trusts will be unfamiliar and may even appear distant and unaccountable. It is therefore essential that MATs are capable of engaging with the local communities in which they are grounded. Data generated by stakeholder surveys, such as Kirkland Rowell Surveys, is an important tool for MATs to constructively involve parents and identify areas for improvement.

 

  1.               Each academy in a MAT will face its own individual challenges. Kirkland Rowell Surveys have been used by almost 3,000 schools across the UK and are fine-tuned to drill into the heart of the issues that matter most to parents, pupils and staff. These can include issues such as bullying, discipline and happiness of pupils. Kirkland Kirkland Rowell Surveys also enable academies to compare their feedback with those garnered from other academies across the country, allowing MATs to evaluate their academies’ performance in the context of similar academies nationwide.

 

 

Conclusion

 

  1.               MATs do not automatically improve standards. They do however create a structure with new opportunities to drive improvement. These opportunities can only be accessed when MAT leaders have a sound understanding of assessment practice and data management, allowing them to evaluate the relative strengths and weaknesses of academies under their management. It is crucial therefore that teachers and academy leaders are trained in the use of data in a way that is relevant to their position.

 

  1.               MATs are at their most effective when they have a comprehensive and systematic approach to data collection and management. This does not mean that they should be over-assessing their pupils. Rather it means that academy leaders should be gaining maximum benefit from the data that they are collecting. Good use of assessment and assessment data can help target and evaluate the success of interventions; help support hard to spot children; and drive engagement with local communities.

 

Recommendations

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

April 2016