Call for Evidence

2.1     Statutory Key Stage Assessment in Northern Ireland refers to the formal evaluation of pupils' progress in key areas of learning at specific stages in their education. These assessments are a legal requirement and are designed to ensure that pupils are developing the essential skills needed for life and work.

2.2      Pupils are assessed at the end of:

• Key Stage 1 (Year 4)
• Key Stage 2 (Year 7)
• Key Stage 3 (Year 10)

2.3      The assessments use Levels of Progression (LoP), which describe what pupils "can do" in relation to communication, using mathematics, and using ICT. These levels are intended to help teachers, parents, and pupils understand how well learners are progressing and where further support may be needed.

2.4      The Department has agreed “expected levels” which most children and young people are expected to be able to reach at these three key points in their education: age 8 (level 2); age 11 (level 4); and age 14 (level 5).

2.5      The Key Stage Assessment arrangements were designed to be both formative (assessment for learning) and summative (assessment of learning) and were designed to be used for a range of different purposes at different levels as follows;

• Pupil level: as an integral part of the work of a teacher. This includes both assessment of learning, for example checking that a pupil has reached the expected standard, and assessment for learning, where assessment is used to inform teaching and learning, to identify where a pupil (or a group of pupils) is underachieving.
• School level: to allow school leaders to assess the performance of their schools, identify gaps and areas for development. Schools can benchmark themselves against others in similar circumstances and set targets and deliver actions to drive school improvement.
• System level: providing parents, the public and government information on the standards being achieved in return for the public money being invested in schools. It supports the identification of what is working well and where improvement is needed across the system. 

2.6      A system of robust central moderation by CCEA accompanied the statutory Key Stage assessment arrangements when they were introduced in 2012/13.  This was to provide confirmation that the standards which schools were applying in assessing their pupils’ work were appropriate.  This was introduced partly because of a past lack of confidence among teachers and school leaders about the consistency of approach to assessing pupils, but also because of the dual use of assessment information for system and school accountability.

2.7      There were, however, from the outset significant challenges to the effective implementation of current statutory Key Stage assessment arrangements, with union and wider professional opposition. From 2013-14, the teaching unions included industrial action in respect of assessment arrangements as part of their wider Action Short of Strike dispute linked to changes to pensions, pay, workload, conditions of service etc.  Key Stage assessment was suspended during the COVID-19 pandemic.

2.8      From the 2025–26 academic year, system-level sample assessments will be introduced and replace teacher judgement for statutory assessment. These are written tests in literacy and numeracy designed and administered by CCEA and will be taken by a representative sample of pupils. They are designed to measure the overall performance of the education system—not individual pupils or schools—and will help identify strengths and areas for improvement across Northern Ireland

Definitions

2.9      For the purpose of this survey the following terminology is being used to define the following;

Assessment refers to assessment of a pupil within the education system from early years to year 10.

Statutory assessment refers to government designed assessments which pupil are legally required to conduct for pupils in from Years 1 to 10.

Non statutory assessment refers to everyday in classroom practice and any assessments conducted that are not mandated by the government.

Moderation refers to the process used to ensure that an agreed standard of performance is applied fairly and reliably by all markers/assessors.

Standard refers to an agreed quality of performance required by a student to achieve a certain grade or other performance indicator.