Yeserday included probably the biggest and best news for education in 2008, the scrapping of Key Stage 3 SATs. Below are the headlines from the Guardian and the Independent as the news came out. Let’s hope that the Key Stage 2 SATs are now thoroughly reviewed, although at the moment I’m not convinced by the new version of “single level tests” based on the structure used in music examinations as a possible alternative to KS2 SATs.
- National tests for 14-year-olds are scrapped after marking chaos: National curriculum tests due to be taken by 600,000 14-year-olds at schools in England next summer have been scrapped in the wake of this year’s marking fiasco.
- Balls scraps Sats for 14-year-olds: National school tests for 14-year-olds were abolished today to the delight of parents and teachers’ leaders.
- Francis Beckett: Is scrapping Sats evidence of a new non-Blairite direction for Labour?: Francis Beckett | It’s a relief the government has scrapped Sats for 14-year-olds – but is it a sign of a new, non-Blairite direction for education?
- Labour education U-turn scraps Sats tests for 14-year-olds: Key stage three Sats tests to be abolished and league tables replaced with school-by-school report cards
- Scrapping Sats for 14-year-olds: the background: Controversy over the tests reached a peak with this year’s marking crisis. But the problems run much deeper
- Now scrap Sats for 11-year-olds, Ed Balls told as tests at 14 are axed: Tories and Lib Dems welcome ‘complete U-turn’ but heads still want end to testing in primary schools
- Teachers’ unions and opposition parties welcome abolition of Sats: Opposition parties and teachers’ unions welcome government announcement to scrap national tests for 14-year-olds
- With one mighty blow, Balls decapitates the Sats system: Dithering, it seems, has gone right out of fashion as the education secretary plays follow-my-leader
- Ed Balls scraps Sats for 14-year-olds at key stage 3Move triggered by collapse of marking process and high-profile critical reports on the tests
