As the end of the primary school year looms, the focus of most pupils switches to what treats they can sneak into their lunch box for the school tour.
Children, however, must jump one final academic hurdle before June: standardised tests – or, as they also known, the Drumcondra, Sigma-T or Micra-T tests.
These tests in English reading (or Irish in Gaelscoileanna) and maths measure your child’s achievement compared with other children in all schools at the same class or age level.
Schools are obliged to complete the tests in second, fourth and sixth classes, though some also complete the tests at each class level from first to sixth.
Most parents can expect to receive the results in June or with their children’s end-of-year reports. But what do they mean? And what significance should parents attach to them?
What do the results mean?
Your child’s results are converted into “Sten” scores from one to 10. These scores give an indication as to how a student is performing in relation to their peers, on a class and national level.
| Sten score | What does Sten score mean? | % of children with score |
|---|---|---|
| 8-10 | Well above average | Almost 17% |
| 7 | High average | Almost 17% |
| 5-6 | Average | Almost 34% |
| 4 | Low average | Almost 17% |
| 1-3 | Well below average | Almost 17% |
A high score – eight, nine or 10 – may suggest your child is a high achiever in the area tested. The National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) advises that one high score is not enough to confirm this, so your child’s teacher will use information from other classroom assessments to understand more clearly how well your child is doing in maths and reading.
A low score – one, two or three – suggests your child may have difficulties in one of the areas tested. Other assessments may be used to determine if this is the case and homework may also be helpful to the teacher. Teachers at your child’s school may decide that your child would benefit from extra support. If so, your child’s teacher will talk to you about this.
The NCCA has more detailed advice on interpreting Sten scores here.
What is being tested, exactly?
They are tests designed to monitor students’ progress in the areas of literacy and numeracy.
“We have a detailed letter that we send out annually to parents which explains how the tests are conducted and scored,” says Pádraic Fay, principal at St Joseph’s primary school, Dún Laoghaire.
“It explains that only literacy and numeracy are tested. Tests do not consider emotional intelligence, common sense or how kind and loving your child is.”
There are both paper and online versions of the tests and schools choose the version that suits their community best.
What is the information used for?
All schools must report the results of these tests to the Department of Education.
The results are then used at national level as part of the process involved in determining the allocation of special educational teaching resources to individual schools.
On a more local level, schools can use the test data to inform their planning for the coming years.
“The information is very important for schools,” says Emer Casey, deputy principal and head of special education at St Joseph’s.
“We use it to inform our planning for the coming year, to see the areas that need interventions. We also use it to analyse how well our interventions have been working, and maybe to tweak some where necessary.”
Many schools now input the answers to each individual test on to Aladdin, a school-based software programme.
This software will then identify areas in the curriculum that students are doing well in while also highlighting areas that need attention.
For example, results from the numeracy tests could show that students in a school or class level are performing well in data and measures but scoring lower in shape and space. Schools can then set targets to address this deficit.
The results can also help schools identify students who may be in need of additional support.
For example, if students in first class participate in the Drumcondra screeners, teachers can identify students who may need additional support for the coming year. These screeners indicate if a student has reached certain benchmark or would benefit from support to do so.
Early intervention is key to supporting additional needs in literacy and numeracy and standardised tests can help teachers identify students who would benefit from this early support.
Teachers are continually assessing their students, and the standardised tests are just one of the methods used. Teachers are aware that a student may be daunted by tests or have an external issue that impacts on their performance on the day of testing.
Do all students have to complete the test?
A principal can decide to exempt a student from the testing based on criteria outlined by the department ranging from learning, behavioural or physical needs.
Accommodations can be made for certain students. This can range from providing reading assistance during the maths assessment or the inclusion of movement breaks in the test. However, these results cannot be formally recorded and are marked as exempt due to accommodations made.
Do dyslexic students get accommodations?
Dyslexia Ireland normally advocates for accommodations for dyslexic students in exams. However, Donald Ewing, the organisation’s head of education, says that as these standardised tests are designed to assess reading, they do not seek accommodations in the traditional sense.
The organisation prefers to focus on how best to minimise the impact these tests can have on the self-esteem of a student with dyslexia.
“Either providing an ability to step away from the test, if it would be perceived to be damaging or beyond the young person, or opportunities to prepare a young person in advance, to reassure and to say, try your best,” Ewing says,
May and June are busy months in Dyslexia Ireland with many parents of dyslexic students calling concerned about these tests.
Ewing, says these tests cannot be relied upon to identify dyslexia.
“They were never designed to pick up dyslexic symptoms, they tend to measure comprehension and vocabulary,” says Ewing. “They’re also multiple choice so smart dyslexic kids, who are used to coping and masking, will often do okay in these tests.”
Ewing says that while schools are encouraged to use test results to inform the allocation of special education teaching, they should use additional assessment tools and their own professional judgment to help identify dyslexic students.
“Sometimes a school will use the Sten score as a kind of hard cut-off point to decide who gets support, and that can be frustrating, because you could be quite severely dyslexic, but doing okay in the Drumcondra tests and then not get support,” says Ewing.
“We would always encourage schools to look beyond that one score to decide either who needs support in school or who might require further diagnostic or professional testing.”
Are children told about the tests in advance?
It depends on individual schools. Some opt not to tell the children about the test in advance for fear they may cause stress.
Donald Ewing of Dyslexia Ireland says best practice would suggest that informing the parents before the test allows them to prepare the students for the test and helps minimise any negative impact it may have on their self-esteem.
“If you are dyslexic and you’re particularly sensitive or nervous about testing, it can be a bit damaging,” says Ewing. “It would probably be useful to reach out to those parents and just give them some options around prepping their kids and reassuring them.”
How are parents informed?
Many parents will be informed of the results via their child’s school report. If they require clarification, they can contact the school.
However, at St Joseph’s they have decided to keep this information separate to the school report.
“We have chosen, as a school, not to include the Drumcondra test results in the school report. It’s sent out as a separately to all parents,” says Fay. “Parents choose whether they want to share the information with their child or not and if they have any concerns afterwards, we are free to talk to them.”
Fay believes the school report and standardised test results should be kept separate. “The school report is a reflection of the child, a holistic report on the child,” says Fay.
“We want every child to be able to put the report up on the fridge door for everybody to see. We want grannies, grandads, aunts and uncles to look at it,” says Fay. “We’ve a multinational community here, many who have grandparents and relations abroad. They will be sending photographs of the report home to them.”
Casey says the decision to inform the parents of the test scores separately to the reports is rooted in wellbeing.
“Wellbeing is at the core of all we do. Our end-of-year reports are always positive, and children should be proud to share the report. We feel that by sending the standardised results separately, we’re ensuring the child can do that.”
What are the pros and cons of standardised testing?
Some teachers say these tests give students experience of formal testing environments and can give them a sense of achievement when the test is completed.
A survey of primary schoolteachers in Ireland published by the Centre for Assessment Research Policy and Practice in Education in DCU and the INTO revealed the mixed feelings teachers have about these tests.
Some believed the tests were “a valid way of measuring achievement in reading and mathematics, helped to identify learning goals ... and improved the quality of teaching and learning in schools.”
Those who disliked the tests “felt that undue anxiety and pressure to perform were negative consequences of standardised testing”.
While the tests may be standardised, how teachers, students and parents feel about them is varied. Perhaps the only standard that should be kept to the fore is that they offer a mere snapshot of a student’s progress on the testing day and are by no means a reflection on a student’s overall success.
