SSA finds out how well pupils in Scotland as a whole are learning. The findings are important for the Scottish Government as it monitors performance and reviews educational policy. However, schools too can use the findings, even although SSA does not report school by school.
This section suggests some ways in which all schools - not only those that took part in the survey - can use the findings.
Findings of surveys
The findings of each SSA are published in the year following the survey. So, for example, the findings of the 2005 Survey of English Language and Core Skills were published early in 2006.
An information leaflet explains the main findings of a survey for a wide audience - parents, teachers and the general public. A more detailed Practitioners’ Report and Technical Annexe provides more detailed information and, as its title suggests, is intended primarily for educational professionals.
Using the findings of surveys
To illustrate how teachers and schools might use the findings of surveys, the results of the 2005 Survey of English Language and Core Skills are used here, with a focus on P7. (Surveys report performance for P3, P5, P7 and S2. The suggestions made here for P7 can be followed for any of the stages.)
A good starting point is the information leaflet for that survey. If you have not already seen this, it would be worthwhile accessing it online or downloading it for future use.
The leaflet itself could provide a useful discussion point for meetings with parents and with staff. It provides up-to-date information about performance in Scottish schools in a compact, easily readable format.
Most teachers at some time probably wonder how their class is performing compared with other classes in other schools across Scotland. The results of SSA provide one way of making such a comparison. SSA finds out what is happening for Scotland as a whole. Teachers can use these national findings to evaluate the performance of their own classes. Here are three possibilities, based on the results for reading for P7.
Attaining the expected level
The most obvious starting point may be to draw the comparison between the performance of P7 in the school and performance of P7 for Scotland as a whole. The comparisons will be made easily if you have used national assessments to confirm the judgements you have made about pupils’ performance, based on a range of evidence gathered from day-to-day working with the pupils. If you used national assessments to confirm judgements made about attainment in reading in P7, you will have a score for each pupil who took the Level D national assessments. These scores are directly comparable to the results of the survey.
You will know how many pupils in your P7 class have been confirmed at Level D, using 65 per cent as the threshold score in national assessments. These pupils have 'well established' reading skills, to use the language in which the results of the survey are reported.
From the information leaflet you can find out that just under half the P7 pupils nationally attained this level (or better).
Now reflect on what you have found out. Are your pupils doing as well as pupils in Scotland as whole? Are they doing better, or worse? Are there any special reasons to explain the results of your pupils?
Performing very well
The information leaflet provides another useful piece of information. It shows the percentage of P7 pupils who correctly answered 80 per cent or more of the questions in the reading assessments. Across Scotland as a whole, about a fifth of P7 pupils had these 'very good' reading skills.
How do your pupils compare? You will be able to work out the comparable figure for your own pupils from the results of the national assessments.
A profile of P7 reading performance
Using the tables in the information leaflet it is possible to work out the profile of P7 reading performance nationally. One of the tables is reproduced below.
Level C
Just over three-quarters of P7 pupils nationally had well-established skills (or better) at Level C. In other words, if given a Level C national assessment in reading, these pupils would reach the threshold score of 65 per cent easily, and many would reach the upper threshold of 80 per cent. This, of course, is no more than you might expect of P7. However, about a quarter of P7 had not yet developed their reading skills sufficiently to move from Level C to Level D, the expected level for P7.
The table shows that just under a quarter of P7 would be struggling with a Level C national assessment. About 12 per cent would be able to answer more than half the questions correctly, but not reach the threshold score to show that they had well established skills - they had made a good start. The remainder - about 10 per cent - could not manage to answer correctly half the questions in a Level C assessment
So, nationally, the 2005 English Language Survey showed that:
- just under a quarter of P7 pupils had not attained Level C.
just over a quarter of P7 had well established reading skills at Level C but not at Level D.
Level D
The table shows that just under half of P7 pupils nationally had well established reading skills at Level D. It also shows that about a third of P7 pupils had gone beyond the expectation for P7 and had well established reading skills at Level E.
So nationally, about a fifth of P7 pupils had well established reading skills at Level D.
Level E
The table shows that about a third of P7 pupils nationally had well established reading skills at Level E.
What is your reaction to these findings? Are you surprised that so many P7 pupils have well established reading skills at Level E or that so many P7 pupils have not yet developed well established reading skills at Level D?
These are a few examples of ways in which teachers and schools could use the information leaflet. There are other possibilities, the most obvious being to look at the other stages in a similar way.
If SSA produced figures at local authority level, as it sometimes does, you can make similar comparisons between the performance of your pupils/school and the other pupils in your authority as well as comparisons with Scotland as a whole.
The Practitioners’ Report and Technical Annex for the 2005 SSA English Language and Core Skills provides much more detailed information than the information leaflet. For example, it gives more detail about pupils' performance in reading, discussed above.
As well as providing detailed results for each of the assessments used in the survey, the Practitioners’ Report includes other information likely to be of interest to educational professionals.
Here are two examples.
Contexts for learning
SSA asks samples of pupils and teachers to complete a questionnaire as part of the survey. The results of the questionnaires are collated and reported. Amongst other things these results provide an insight into what is happening in classrooms across Scotland. So using the results of the 2005 survey you can find out, for example, what classroom activities are most commonly used by teachers. You can also find out pupils’ perceptions about what they do in class.
These finding provide scope for reflection for all teachers.
For discussion
Towards the end of the Practitioners’ Report there is a section that highlights some of the questions prompted by the survey findings. These are well worth consideration by teachers and schools.
One way or another, therefore, there are plenty of ways in which teachers and schools can use the findings of SSA to prompt reflection, stimulate discussion and help shape future provision.