Target level

The government once decided what pupils should be able to do in language and mathematics. For maths, there are two key levels at the end of primary school:

• 1F = the basic level (foundation level)

• 1S = the target level (a higher level than 1F)

At national level, it was agreed that 65 percent of pupils should reach this level. However, new analyses show that both the way this is measured and the way it is used to judge schools are flawed.

Unreliable measurement

Arthur Bakker, Professor of Didactics and Curriculum, explains where the problem lies:

‘First of all, the way in which 1S is measured is unreliable. The different assessments that schools are allowed to use produce very different results. With one test, only a quarter of pupils reach 1S, while with another test almost half do so. This has little to do with the pupils themselves and much more with differences in difficulty between the tests. As a result, schools sometimes receive an unjustified “insufficient” label, which leads to stress among teachers, parents and school leaders.’

A 65 per cent target is unrealistic

According to Bakker, the aim that 65 per cent of pupils should achieve 1S is also unrealistic.
‘When this target was formulated more than fifteen years ago, it was based on limited data. We now know that the starting point was lower than was assumed at the time. Moreover, 1S was never intended as a hard standard that schools had to meet,’ he explains.

As a result, maths education is often judged on the basis of figures that say little about what pupils can actually do. This does not help schools or pupils to improve. Bakker and other experts therefore argue for a fundamental revision of the measuring system.
‘Introducing a single, new national end test will not solve the problem. The goals, the tests and the way results are used all need to be better aligned. Only then will we get a fair picture of what pupils are learning and what schools need,’ Bakker concludes.