pathway: Education

Given the changed policy context in England for the assessment of writing over the past five years, and the high-stakes assessment context in which it occurs, I want to investigate the validity and reliability of the current assessment of writing at the end of KS2. Currently, this combines an external test of grammar and teacher assessment of writing.

Key theoretical thinking from assessment research will be used to consider writing assessment. The research will be routed in a sociocultural perspective of writing.

Data collection will consist of interviews with teachers, observations of moderation meetings, and statistical analysis of the relationship between the KS2 test results and the teacher assessment results. The statistical analysis will look at the correlation between the teacher assessment results and KS2 results. A qualitative analysis of ten pupils’ teacher assessed writing portfolios and their KS2 test results to investigate the relationship between the two will also be conducted.

My research will primarily seek to create a formative assessment framework for tracking the progress of ‘Learning Skills’ (a term used in a number of schools and LAs to describe the skills or dispositions necessary for learning to learn, developing positive learning dispositions, metacognition and self-regulated learning) across primary school. This will take the form of a practical, teacher-friendly formative assessment framework that can be used by teachers and children to assess development in Learning Skills, in order to support children to make sustained and informed progress throughout their primary years.