WIREDGOV

New plans to improve the way teachers in Wales assess their learners’ work have been published by the Welsh Government.

Education Minister, Huw Lewis is asking for views on the new proposals which have been designed to strengthen teacher assessment in Wales.

Under the plans, regional consortia would become responsible for overseeing moderation, ensuring reliability and improving confidence in teacher assessment.  

There would also be a requirement for  all schools delivering Key Stage 2 and Key Stage 3 provision to put  teachers forward for ‘cluster‘ moderation in order to develop a more consistent, rigorous and robust system for assessing learners’ work.

The consultation also recommends introducing a new system of external verification which could include both random and targeted sampling of learners’ work, while another proposal is to explore the principle of   extending the cluster group moderation model to include the Foundation Phase.

Huw Lewis said yesterday:

“The proposals we are publishing today look at ways in which we can improve and strengthen how teachers in Wales assess their pupils’ work.

“They are aimed at helping us to develop a more robust, rigorous and credible system of assessment, that is respected throughout the teaching profession and education world and widely accepted as consistent.  

“The proposals follow feedback from schools, regional consortia, teaching unions and Estyn, all of who have called for more to be done to improve the reliability and consistency of the current system.

“This is another important part of our ongoing work to drive up education standards right across Wales and I urge anyone with an interest to feed into the consultation and help us to develop the best possible system for Wales.”

A recent report indicated that the most common recommendation following Estyn inspections is around the need to improve assessments.

As a result the Welsh Government commissioned the Australian Council for Education Research (ACER) to undertake research and evaluation around teacher assessment in Wales. Following its research ACER recommended that the teacher assessment process needed further improvement to achieve the necessary quality, consistency and reliability.

Professor Graham Donaldson is currently leading a comprehensive review of the national curriculum and assessment arrangements in Wales, including assessment from Foundation Phase to Key Stage 3.  

The review is looking at what teachers assess and when, rather than the way in which they assess it.  Professor Donaldson’s recommendations are therefore not expected to impact on this consultation on improvements to the teacher assessment system.

The Welsh Government’s consultation on changes to the teacher assessment system runs from 12 December 2014 to 6 March 2015 and is available on the Welsh Government website