MATTERS FOR DEBATE: ASSESSMENT SATs are emphatically not the only available form of summative assessment … There is an urgent need for a thorough reform of the assessment system, going well beyond the May 2009 report of the DCSF expert group … Childrens learning across all aspects of the curriculum, including their developing capacity to learn, should be assessed formatively throughout the primary phase and summatively before transfer to secondary school … No single assessment procedure should be expected to perform both formative and summative functions … Moving to valid, reliable and properly moderated procedures for a broader approach to assessment will require careful research and deliberation.
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