Assessing Pupils' Progress

We're currently getting to grips with the pilot materials for APP (Assessing Pupils' Progress) in maths, English, science and ICT. For readers who don't know anything about this I'll give a bit of context; everyone else can skip this bit. With the end of SATS tests at KS3, the DCSF is keen to ensure teachers' end of key stage level judgements are secure; APP is supposed to provide a criteria-based framework which helps teachers to look at the entirety of a pupil's work in one subject over a key stage and make a judgement. It can be used to track progress as pupils move through the key stage and to suggest next steps (in the best traditions of Assessment for Learning). For the full description, click here.

Most of the teachers at our school don't have an issue with the principles of APP (now that the prescriptive maths units aren't seen as compulsory) but we all recognise the difficulty in managing the assessment process. It's not too bad in ICT, with only 3 "AF"s or "Assessment Focuses"; in maths there are 6 and in English there are currently 8 (before you add in speaking, listening or handwriting). Within each AF there are criteria at each National Curriculum level.

The theory seems to be that each child will have a large piece of paper (or 3, in English!) and the teacher will highlight or tick off criteria as work is done and milestone assessments take place. The problems seem to me to be:

1. How do you "back up" this data? (It has to last 3 years).
2. How do you share the data with the student, parents or colleagues?
3. How do you manage the process of assessing work so that only those AFs which are relevant are shown (thereby making life easier for the teacher)?
4. How do you get an overview of the performance of a class (or multiple classes) in order to plan intervention activities?

I know I can't help but look for ICT solutions where they aren't always necessary, but this seems to me to be a classic situation that calls for a database. Unfortunately, once again the MIS manufacturers look to be behind the curve on this, with our own Serco offering not integration for criterion-based assessment at KS3, but a separate product called Alfie, which appears to create online tests for students to gauge their level. This isn't bad in itself, but it seems to be missing the point of APP...

As we move towards Online Reporting (which must be in place by September 2010 for all secondary schools), surely we need to be making APP information available to parents? The solution for now at our school is likely to be paper-based, though I'm working with the maths team to develop a web database solution (and, predictably, the ICT team are already using a custom database). The aim will be to allow data to be entered for a single assessment, but for it to be reported either as an overview of a child's achievement or that of a group of students. Naturally, as a web application it will be multi-user and easy to back up. If you're interested or you'd like to help, get in touch! The sticking point is sure to be integration with Facility, so let's hope Capita, Serco et al pick up on where this is going and develop something themselves.