Report calls for major overhaul of curriculum and assessment
An education think tank has called for a 10 year plan to reform the curriculum and assessment systems in England, which would see GCSEs and A Levels replaced by a four year ‘baccalaureate’, and curriculum content reduced. SATs at age 11 would also be replaced as part of the proposals in the report Evolution and Revolution from the think tank EDSK.
The report comes as the government say they are developing plans to replace A-levels and T-levels with a new ‘advanced British standard’, while Labour has said it would review curriculum and assessment if it forms the next government. EDSK argue that while they see a number of strengths to the current system, including the promotion of ‘phonics’, the ‘knowledge rich’ curriuculum and ‘academic rigour’, there are also a number of areas ripe for change. They suggest that the curriculum suffers from ‘content overload’ and call on the government to set an immediate goal of reducing the curriculum content in all Key Stages across primary and secondary education by a minimum of 10 per cent in all subjects. The report also suggests a lack of breadth after age 16 is a weakness, pointing out that England is an international outlier in allowing 16-year-olds to drop all forms of English and maths rather than continuing to take them until age 18. They also criticise an emphasis on high-stakes tests such as SATs and GCSEs for promoting an undesirable amount of ‘teaching to the test’.
To address these perceived weaknesses, they call for state-funded education in England to be formally divided into three phases - Primary (ages 4-11), Lower Secondary (ages 11-14) and Upper Secondary (ages 14-18) – which would underpin the approach to curriculum, assessment and accountability across primary and secondary education. SATs at age 11 would be replaced by online adaptive assessments in reading, spelling, punctuation and grammar, as well as numeracy. Pupils would take these new adaptive tests approximately once every two years, from ages 5 to 14. Meanwhile writing would be formally assessed at ages 7, 11 and 14 through ‘comparative judgement’ exercises.
In the proposed ‘Upper Secondary’ phase GCSEs, A Levels and T Levels would be scrapped, and pupils would instead progress through a four- year ‘Upper Secondary Baccalaureate’ (USB) from Year 10 to Year 13, which would incorporate academic, applied and technical courses. As part of this all pupils would be required to study both ‘Core English’ (literacy) and ‘Core Maths’ (numeracy) until the age of 18. All subjects would be graded using a standardised a 10-1 scale (with 10 being the highest grade) and assessments in the USB would be ‘digital by default’, meaning that students would take digital rather than pen-and-paper exams in the majority of cases. The authors point out that a number of countries, including Denmark and Australia, are already moving away from pen-and-paper assessments. Subjects with a significant practical element (e.g. art, design & technology, engineering) would continue to use non-exam assessments where necessary.
Tom Richmond, director of EDSK and co-author of the report, said: ‘By replacing SATs and GCSEs with regular online tests, slashing the amount of primary and secondary curriculum content and introducing a four-year baccalaureate from ages 14 to 18, schools and colleges will finally be able to focus on giving students more time and space to enjoy their learning and progress as far as possible.’
Commenting on the report, Simon Connell, chief executive of the Baker Dearing Educational Trust, said: ‘The Upper Secondary Baccalaureate model that this report puts forward offers a viable means of improving the prospects of young people and widening access to technical education, while encouraging high-quality maths and English provision which we know helps students progress to advanced STEM education and careers.’
Full report: https://tinyurl.com/knh5uh5u