Another Level

Julie Price Grimshaw on why we need to ensure systems of assessment aid learning, not the other way round...

About 18 months ago, I asked a child in Year 6 if he knew what he needed to do to make his written work even better.

“Oh yes,” he replied enthusiastically, “I need to get to a Level 5c!”

“So what does that mean?” I asked.

“It’s the one after 4a.”

“And what exactly do you need to do to get to Level 5c?”

He turned to a page in his book and pointed to his teacher’s feedback. “To get a Level 5c you need to improve your use of connectives.”

I felt we were getting somewhere now. “What does that mean – improve your use of connectives?”

“I don’t know,” said the boy. “I think it means that I’m not allowed to use the word ‘and’. But the main thing is I have to do a piece of work that’s a Level 5c.”

This was the first time it dawned on me that the tail was wagging the dog. The learning seemed to take second place to the levelling, that we were teaching something solely in order to assess it. But it’s easy to see how things got to that stage. I found myself routinely referring to a particular child as ‘a Level 3 in reading’ or ‘not quite a Level 5b in maths’. I wasn’t intentionally labelling these children as numbers and sub-levels, but it had simply become a shorthand for where the children were up to. And therein lies the problem: whatever system we use, there’s a fine line between using assessment to measure and promote learning, and allowing assessment to become the sole reason for teaching something.

I once planned a lesson for Year 6 pupils based on pre-decimalisation currency. I ordered a bag of ‘old’ money from eBay (which cost more to post than its actual value) and we did some addition and subtraction in pounds, shillings and pence. It was great fun and we enjoyed it immensely, but I was criticised by some teachers simply because, ‘that sort of thing isn’t part of even Level 6 maths.’ It was almost as if nothing could be taught unless it was directly linked to levelling.

We also have the issue of pupils knowing their levels and targets. Once again there’s a fine line – this time between using targets and levels to motivate pupils, and allowing targets and levels to dominate, rather than enhance, learning. A teacher once told me, proudly, that every pupil in his class knew their current level and target level. So what? Going back to my first example, without the children understanding the what these levels actually mean, such a boast is meaningless.

We are now being encouraged to use every bit of evidence we can to build up a detailed picture of what pupils know, understand and can do. We have to accept that some things are worth teaching simply because they are worth learning, not because they form part of a test or level criteria. We also have the opportunity now to revisit basics, such as how often we should formally assess, and how we can best use targets for pupils to secure high-quality learning and rapid progress.

At a recent workshop for headteachers on ‘life after levels’, we started to build our own new assessment systems. After a while, some were surprised to see that what they had designed was simply another incarnation of exactly what we have now. The danger, therefore, is that assessment in any form might continue to drive learning, rather than being used to measure it. We have an opportunity now to create something that works for us, and it’s one that we have to take.

Julie’s book, Self-propelled learning and effective teaching, is available on Amazon. It examines dozens of teaching strategies to discover what works and what doesn’t. 

About the author

Julie Price Grimshaw is a teacher, teacher trainer, and education consultant. She has taught primary and secondary and has been involved in school inspections since 2001.