What is being assessed?

Scottish National Standardised Assessments focus on aspects of reading, writing and numeracy as part of the National Improvement Framework.

Who is being assessed?

All children in P1, P4, P7 and S3.

When will Scottish National Standardised Assessments be available?

The assessments have been available since August 2017.

When will the assessments take place?

Individual teachers and schools, with guidance from their local authorities, will decide the most appropriate time during the school year for children to take the standardised assessments.

How will the assessments take place?

Assessments are completed online and automatically marked by the online system, giving teachers immediate feedback to help children progress.

How will this impact children?

The Scottish National Standardised Assessments are delivered as part of routine learning and teaching. Children are not expected to revise or prepare for assessments.  The assessments are as inclusive as possible, and accommodate the needs of children and young people who require additional support.

How will the results be used?

Scottish National Standardised Assessments data will contribute to a complete, consistent and balanced picture of how children are getting on in school. Teachers, schools, and local authorities use this information to make further improvements at an individual, classroom, school and local level, which in turn, will help every child to succeed.

Why introduce a new system?

Consistent, objective and comparable information is required at school, local authority and national level to show us which learning and teaching approaches are working best and where changes need to be made. That way we can learn from the best, and ensure time and efforts are focused on the approaches that have the greatest impact on learning.

Scottish Government have introduced a single, nationally consistent set of standardised assessments, designed to reflect the way we deliver education in Scotland through Curriculum for Excellence. These assessments are expected to replace the variety of existing standardised assessments that local authorities and schools currently use.

How will the assessments benefit children and teachers?

Through the use of Scottish National Standardised Assessments, the National Improvement Framework will provide information on how all children in Scotland are progressing with their learning. Taken together, ongoing assessment information and national standardised assessment results will provide a more complete, consistent and balanced picture of how children are getting on.

Alongside a range of other evidence, the Scottish National Standardised Assessments will inform teachers’ professional judgements of Curriculum for Excellence levels. The assessments should not be used in isolation and should not be viewed as a replacement for the ongoing assessment of children’s progress which is central to Curriculum for Excellence.

Scottish Government is clear that the purpose of all assessment, including national standardised assessments, is to help teachers understand how children are progressing, and to help teachers tailor aspects of future learning accordingly. Assessment data should be used to improve educational outcomes for every child and young person.

How long will the assessments take?

The standardised assessments will be as short as possible and will be age and stage appropriate. There is no time limit. This is to ensure children do not feel unnecessary time pressure when undertaking the assessments. We expect, however, that the majority of children will complete each assessment in no more than 45 minutes.

Will the assessments be inclusive and accessible?

We will ensure that the national standardised assessments are as inclusive as possible and accommodate the needs of children and young people who require additional support. Whatever support a child receives in the classroom should be available for the assessments.

Practitioners who work with children and young people with complex additional support needs will use their knowledge and understanding of the individual child and their needs, strengths and challenges to reach a decision, with parents, on whether or not the use of standardised assessment is appropriate.

Supporting schools

Local authorities will decide how they support their schools with Scottish National Standardised Assessments. Local authority representatives with responsibility for assessment should work closely with headteachers and teachers to advise them on planning for the assessments. Clear guidelines from local authorities on implementation will be very important in the initial stages of roll-out and implementation.

Using the data

All the data generated by Scottish National Standardised Assessments will be owned by local authorities and will provide them with the opportunity to analyse children's and young people’s progression in a variety of ways.

Reporting and analysis of the data will be key, and consideration should be given to how local authorities wish to produce reports that will be useful and informative.

Curriculum for Excellence levels

Each local authority will have its own assessment policy which should include strategies for considering Scottish National Standardised Assessments and how the results can be used to inform teachers' professional judgement on children’s achievement of Curriculum for Excellence levels.

Training

With SCHOLAR, all local authorities have negotiated training packages, incorporating both phases of training, appropriate to their own needs and at a time in the school session best suited to them.

To support the conduct of the norming and equating studies, schools have received guidance notes and a bespoke training package for teachers.

Technical readiness

The Scottish National Standardised Assessments tool is entirely web-based and available on any technical platform. It does not require any bespoke IT upgrades or installations. However, local authorities need to ensure technical readiness in schools so that the assessments can be successfully implemented.

There is a service desk in place to provide help and support on all aspects of the Scottish National Standardised Assessments including technical readiness.

Contact details for the service desk are available within the assessment system. You can also email the service desk at info@snsa.org.uk.