Year 6 standardised test variance (FOI)

​Request

From the standardised testing process that the year 6 students undertook last year:

Overall, what % of students results from these standardised tests differed to the teachers assessment?

What % of year 6 students achieved a lower assessment through standardised testing than the teacher assessment?

What % of year 6 students achieved a higher assessment through standardised testing than the teacher assessment?

Response

Output from standardised tests taken by pupils in Year 6 in May 2017 was in numerical format of between 80 and 120. By contrast, Teacher Assessments against the Jersey Curriculum are measured using age related expectations such as 6E, 6D or 6S where a pupil is accessing (and mastering) curriculum content defined for Year 6 and is either deemed to be Emerging, Developing or Secure in this knowledge.

It is therefore not possible to make a direct comparison between the results of the Tests and the Teacher Assessments. This noted, these Tests were used in 2017 to reinforce Teacher Assessments in this early stage of using the new Jersey Primary Assessment Framework (as different standardised tests were utilised in 2016). The Education Department analysed the results using a ‘typical range’ approach that looked at the range of test scores typically achieved by pupils with a given Teacher Assessment.

For example, the Department looked at the test scores achieved by all pupils assessed as a 6D, then chose lower and upper limits such that 80% of pupils scored between the two limits, with 10% scoring below the lower limit and 10% scoring above the upper limit. They then repeated this process for all possible Teacher Assessments to give 80% typical ranges for each outcome.

This means that 20% of children fall outside the ‘typical range’ due to the nature of this calculation, whereby the comparison between the Teacher Assessment and Test result differed. In other words, 10% of pupils were considered to be ‘below’ the typical range, and a further 10% were considered to be ‘above’ the typical range.