Information on the Scottish National Standardised Assessments (SNSA): FOI release

Information request and response under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002.


FOI reference: FOI/17/01652
Date received: 16 July 2017
Date responded: 9 August 2017

Information requested

The following information on the standardised assessments:

a. What data will be captured?

b. What format will the data be published in? and when?

c. Who will the data from school be shared with?

d. When will parents and teachers have access to this data?

Response

The data that will be captured for the Scottish National Standardised Assessments (SNSA) consists of two components, user information and assessment results. For the vast majority of schools user information will be sourced from an Education Management Information System (MIS). The MIS system used within Scottish Education SEEMiS. For the minority of schools (fewer than 40) that are not associated directly with a local authority, the user information can be uploaded onto the standardised assessments system, and/or created manually. The assessments results are the actual results of assessments generated within the SNSA system.

The standardised assessments system will automatically generate an individual diagnostic report on each child or young person which will be available to the teacher immediately after an assessment is completed. In addition, reports which combine the results of groups of assessments will be available at group, class, school, cluster and local authority levels. Anonymised data (ie data that does not identify individual children) will be available to the Scottish Government although no final decision has been reached on the range of data that the Scottish Government will access.

What format will the data be published in? and when?

Teacher's professional judgement remains the key measure of achievement of Curriculum for Excellence levels. The Scottish Government publishes annual teacher professional judgement data on the percentage of children who have achieved the CfE levels in literacy and numeracy relevant to their stage. The next such publication will be in December 2017. Information and data from the national standardised assessments will be used to inform those professional judgements.

Who will the data from school be shared with?

Staff working on behalf of ACER International United Kingdom Limited, the main provider of the standardised assessments, will be providing an online and telephone helpdesk for teachers using the assessments and they will as part of this helpdesk provision, have access to some personal data. This will be done on the principle of "least privilege" meaning that helpdesk staff will only have the permissions which are absolutely essential to perform their support tasks. Helpdesk staff will be trained in information handling.

Teachers will discuss with children how they got on in their national standardised assessment, and will plan next steps with the individual child based on that information. Standardised assessment results will be considered alongside other evidence of a child's progress, from ongoing assessment and classroom activity.

Parents and carers can ask to see how their child has performed in the standardised assessments. Education Scotland will be working with teachers and parents and carers, to agree how best to share standardised assessment results, along with other assessment evidence that teachers use, so that parents have a holistic understanding of their child's progress and how best to support their learning at home.

Local authorities will have access to the school level data generated by the assessments. The Scottish Government will also have access to anonymised data, but decisions are yet to be taken on what will be included.

When will parents and teachers have access to this data?

Teachers will have immediate feedback from the assessments. The assessments will be completed online and will be automatically marked by the online system, giving teachers valuable feedback to help children progress. An individual diagnostic report will be produced on completion of an assessment. Teachers will use this information, alongside a wide range of other assessment information, to inform their professional judgement on how a child is progressing with their learning.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses

Contact

Please quote the FOI reference

Central Enquiry Unit
Email: ceu@gov.scot
Phone: 0300 244 4000

The Scottish Government
St Andrew's House
Regent Road
Edinburgh
EH1 3DG

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