Background
The appropriateness of students sitting high-stakes external examinations at age 16 when they will continue in education for another two years has been questioned.
The cancellation of examinations in summer 2020 and 2021 due to the Covid19 pandemic has highlighted the dependence of the English assessment system on end of course, timed written examinations. Other jurisdictions make use of some teacher assessment.
The purpose of this paper
Whether or not a fundamental change occurs in the assessment system across all subjects, MEI wishes to promote discussion about assessment in mathematics.
This discussion paper raises some of the issues which need to be considered when assessing mathematics attainment within a national summative assessment system. It does not claim to be an exhaustive analysis and it does not attempt to make any recommendations. The aim is to encourage informed discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of the current system in England and how it might be improved. Current assessment practices in England are considered, along with previous practices and some from other countries.
Formative assessment is a vital part of teaching and learning but how this is carried out is not the focus of this paper. However, the possibility of using teachers’ assessment of their students as a contribution to national summative assessment is considered.
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