As the Scottish Parliamentary enquiry into assessments in school begins, a leading academic has accused the Scottish Government of ‘substantial and perverse misrepresentation’ of his criticisms of P1 assessments.
The Scottish Government cited Dylan Wiliam, emeritus professor of educational assessment at University College London, as a supporter of assessments at P1 and stated that “Dylan Wiliam…. presents research that shows formative assessment practices have a much greater impact on educational achievement than most other reforms.”
However, in an article published in the Herald this morning Professor Wiliam is quoted as saying; “This is a substantial, and I would say perverse, misrepresentation of my work.”
He goes on to state that “the unreliability of the assessments, combined with the unreliability of five-year-olds, means these assessments are almost completely useless as guides to the achievement and needs of five-year-olds” and states that the tests are “simply incapable of providing the kind of information that I think teachers would need in order to teach better.”
Speaking after the committee meeting, the Scottish Conservatives have said that this highlights the Scottish Government’s misuse of information to promote a specific policy.
Liz Smith, Scottish Conservative shadow education secretary said:
“This is a classic case of the Scottish Government misusing information in order to promote a specific policy line.
“Professor Wiliam is very clear that he has been misrepresented in what he describes as a “perverse” manner, yet that misrepresentation has been used by the SNP to claim support for P1 assessments.
“At today’s Education Committee, when members heard from key witnesses about the benefits and failings within the Scottish Government’s SNSA assessments, politicians were issued with a stark warning about the dangers of inaccurate interpretation of data or evidence and this ties in perfectly with what has happened here.
“It is not acceptable and John Swinney should apologise.”
