By the SATs divided? A critical realist investigation into the views and experiences of teachers regarding the impact the Key Stage Two Standard Assessment Tests (KS2 SATs) have on the taught curriculum of Year 6 pupils in England.

Abstract

By the SATs divided? A critical realist investigation into the views and experiences of teachers regarding the impact the Key Stage Two Standard Assessment Tests (KS2 SATs) have on the taught curriculum of Year 6 pupils in England.
Although initially developed in reference to the field of linguistics (Barnes, 2017), the influence of high stakes testing on learning, known as ‘washback’, is now seen as applicable to any high stakes assessment (Ali and Hamid, 2022). A frequent washback effect attributed to the KS2 SATs in England is a narrowing of the curriculum delivered to Year 6 pupils (aged 10-11 years) due to a disproportionate focus on the subjects and objectives being tested. Current research into the KS2 SATs, however, has not clarified the extent to which this assumption is valid, or if this washback effect is equally applicable to all primary schools. Furthermore, the potential for washback to have both positive as well as negative influences on learning has not been fully explored regarding these tests. It is the extent and nature of the influence of the KS2 SATs on primary education that the present study investigates.
This dissertation reports on a multi-method critical realist study that explores the views of teachers regarding the effect of these tests on the Year 6 curriculum, and their experiences of this in their practice. The originality of the study lies in its focus on the experiences and opinions of those practitioners for whom the KS2 SATs have affected their daily practice as Year 6 teachers. Teachers were asked to reflect on the washback effect of the KS2 SATs on their particular settings and factors they felt affected this. Of particular interest were any differences between schools, and individual teachers’ experiences.
An initial questionnaire to capture contextual information was conducted (n=32) and subsequently ten in-depth semi-structured interviews (with an average duration of 45 minutes) were held with primary teachers, all of whom had recent, direct experience of teaching Year 6. Reflexive Thematic Analysis was systematically employed to identify themes through rigorous engagement with the interview data. Subsequently, as advocated by a critical realist approach, retroductive logic was used to identify generative mechanisms that might influence washback from the KS2 SATs on the Year 6 curriculum.
The findings of the study indicate that, contrary to their intended purpose (under the 1988 Education Reform Act) to ensure consistency in primary education, the continued use of the KS2 SATs in their present form has resulted in division and inconsistency in the educational experience of different groups of pupils. Variation in the impact of the KS2 SATs on pupils’ learning is evident not only between school settings, but also among different groups of children from the same educational institutions. Evidence of balkanisation of Year 6 within primary schools is also revealed in the findings of this study, indicating a division between this year group and the rest of the primary phase.
In this study, mechanisms in the form of school accountability and monitoring, parental influence and expectation, socio-economic factors, and teacher agency are identified as contributing to a divided educational system where inequality, and even inequity, influence the delivery of the National Curriculum to Year 6 pupils in England. These findings are significant as they add a further perspective to the debate over the appropriateness of KS2 SATs with regard to primary school education, revealing how the washback potential of the tests differs in actuality, and how this results in an inconsistent Year 6 experience for English pupils. Possibilities for further research are identified regarding the need to establish the extent of this impact. Furthermore, in light of current debates over school evaluation, and election promises made by the newly elected Labour government, it is proposed that any review of schools’ curriculum and assessment (Labour Party, 2024) should investigate how testing at the end of the primary phase can be modified so that it does not contribute to a divided education system.

Date of Award	10 Dec 2024
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Bristol
Supervisor	Simon P Brownhill (Supervisor), David Sands (Supervisor) & Artemio A Cortez Ochoa (Supervisor)