STA Assessment without Levels Research

Under the new national curriculum introduced in September 2014, the old system of national curriculum 'levels' used to report pupils' attainment and progress was removed and was not replaced with a new national system. Instead, schools now have the freedom to develop their own approach to ongoing, non-statutory, in-school assessment, which works best for their pupils, parents, curriculum and staff.

The aim of the proposed qualitative research is to develop the Department's evidence base on the types and range of approaches schools are currently taking to non-statutory assessment. There are a number of specific areas in which the Department would like to build its evidence base:

• Current non-statutory assessment practice in schools.
• Any challenges to implementation of new assessment systems post national curriculum levels.
• Examples of how schools have used the new freedoms afforded by the removal of levels and where they view them as having a positive impact.
• Schools' use of commercial assessment products / tools.
• Access to support with assessment.
• Consistency of messaging to schools e.g. to what extent has the messaging to schools on effective assessment practice been consistent from Local Authorities, Regional Schools Commissioners, Ofsted inspectors, STA, Commission on Assessment Without Levels.
• Collaboration with other schools and across primary/secondary phases