Choosing robust assessments

Once you have mapped out your assessment plans for the academic year, it’s time to start the process of selecting the right assessments for your school.

Standardised tests are a popular choice among schools as, when robustly developed and correctly administered to pupils, they can produce a reliable measure of pupil attainment and progress. Not only do they allow schools to benchmark pupil performance nationally, they enable meaningful comparisons between pupils and groups of pupils and provide a measure of attainment that can be monitored over time to indicate progress.

In a hurry? Download the handy pre-assessment checklist here to help your school get assessment ready.

A standardised test should be administered and scored in a “standard” or consistent manner which makes it possible to compare the relative performance of pupils. The test is standardised: trialled with a nationally representative sample of children before being released, so that performance can be compared and amalgamated to provide national benchmarks of performance.

Not all standardised assessments are created equally. To help you choose the right, robust assessments, here are some key questions to ask before you purchase standardised tests: