Rebecca Clarkson

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.