Performance descriptors risk undermining teacher assessment benefits

11 February 2015

Teacher assessment, when it is done well, can be a powerful and effective way of enabling pupils to make progress. In October 2014, in the latest stage of government reforms to the assessment and accountability arrangements for primary schools, a consultation on performance descriptors for use in statutory teacher assessment was announced. This paper examines the implications of the proposed performance descriptors, and argues that without revisions they risk undermining the benefits of teacher assessment.