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SATS! - A Daunting Educational Yardstick
by Noel Swanson
http://www.good-child-guide.com
Well, here we are again facing the dreaded standardized
achievement tests (SATS). Everyone involved is a bundle of
nerves. The head teacher wants to look good on the national
league tables. The other teachers want to make a good
impression. The poor children, everyone keeps telling them
how important the tests are, so they are panicked about not
doing well enough.
Some children, of course, love tests and exams. But most
would be quite happy to do without them, and some get so
stressed by them that it can affect all areas of their lives
- and their parents too! So, if you child is one of these,
what can you do to help?
Actually the SATS were created to assess schools and not
students. The government wanted to know two things: how well
are children doing as a whole, and how well is each school
performing? In hopes of finding these answers, children are
tested when they are 7 in order to get a baseline score.
When they reach 11, they are tested again. The difference
between both scores is supposed to show how much the
children have learned in the four years. This score is
called the "value added". The goal is to enhance the
educational level of eleven year olds, and SATS give that
measurement.
So how is this relevant to your child? It isn't! The SATS
have almost no relevance to an individual child. The
secondary school will not use the SATS scores in planning
their teaching - they will do their own assessment of each
child. Besides, the scores on the SATS, called levels, are
so broad that they do not really tell you how well your
child is doing. The average eleven year old is supposed to
score at level 4. But if your child is at level 4 you still
have no idea if your child is the high end or low end of
average. If your child scores at a lower or higher level,
that too is unlikely to be news to you. Even without the
SATS you would almost certainly have known if your child is
ahead or behind the rest of the class - and so should the
teacher. So your child's individual SAT scores will not
affect his or her education in any way.
So what do you do if your child is worrying about the SATS?
Do explain all this to her. Be quite clear that it is the
school that is being tested, not her, and that the results
she gets really do not matter! Encourage her to do her best,
but don't be pushing her to practise or revise for them.
There are enough exams in life to get worked up about
without also worrying about these.
If reassurance is not enough, then it is time for a visit to
the teacher. Explain your concerns to him and discuss how
the SATS are being approached in the classroom. Together you
should be able to work out a way to support your child
better.
If you have concerns in general about your child's school
progress, then have a talk with the teacher. You may even
need to talk with the head teacher or the Special Needs
Coordinator (SENCO). Take action instead of silently
worrying.
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