Method

Strengths

Limitations

National Curriculum Tests

Judged against school curriculum.
Measure of longitudinal progress.
Easy Transferable data across schools and LEAs.
Based on clear criteria

High levels of achievement dependent on access to appropriate curriculum opportunities.
Unit of measurement can be too broad, particularly with the youngest children

Baseline

Breadth of assessment issues
Can involve qualitative and quantitative data

Can vary across the country
Some schemes lack experience

Ability Profile Tests (eg. CATs)

Useful screening procedure.
Objective evaluation of performance on certain skills in comparison with others of similar age.
Relatively inexpensive.
Can be useful in identifying able children who are under-achieving

Only able to give information on the limited range of skills measured.
Usually limited to measuring analytic skills and do not reward divergent thinking.
May not identify pupils with different cultural/linguistic backgrounds or dyslexic pupils. Format may be daunting for some pupils.
Less robust at the extremes of the range.
Less reliable for younger pupils.

National Curriculum Teacher Assessment

Based on clear criteria.

Linked to the school curriculum.

High levels of achievement dependent on access to appropriate curriculum opportunities.
Open to interpretation.

Teacher Nomination

Makes use of teacher’s ongoing assessments of pupils.
Closely linked to provision.
Facilitates recognition of pupils’ responses to teaching, levels of initiative and interest, lateral thinking and extent of high level problem solving.

Subjective if not undertaken against agreed criteria.
Clearly linked to generality of practice.
Relies on teaching approaches which are confident, challenging and flexible.
Can be disrupted by teacher changes or supply issues.

Classroom Observation

May help to confirm other assessments through systematic data collection based on agreed criteria. Assesses child in familiar context doing familiar tasks.

Time consuming if done in addition to normal classroom practice.
Can be subjective if not undertaken rigorously and on a series of occasions (including variety of teaching contexts).

Examination of Pupil Work

Good measure of written outcomes.
Helps refine teacher expectations through analysis of high quality work.
Can allow children with specific learning disabilities (e.g. dyslexic children) opportunity to demonstrate ability in other subject areas

Can be subjective if not undertaken rigorously.
Only measures achievement not potential.
High performance reliant on good opportunities and high teacher expectation.
Over reliance on written work can hide wider potential, especially for younger children.

Subject Specific Checklists

Useful in assisting teachers to explore ability in their subject and thereby recognise those with high ability.
Discussion generated in departments can serve to facilitate curriculum design

Checklists cannot be relevant for each individual. Extensive lists can be unwieldy to manage and time consuming to administer.

Generic Checklists

Easily accessible.
Simple to handle.

Can run the risk of creating stereotypes.
Too general to be useful in curriculum terms.
Validity remains questionable.

Reading Tests

Easy to administer.
Reading competence gives some indication of likely exam performance.
Some schools have access to some standardised score which allows for ‘Summer born’ factor to be considered

Reading is a skill rather than an ability and high scores on reading tests are not a reliable indicator of cognitive ability.

Creativity Tests

Measures ability not normally assessed as part of school assessment.
Offers divergent thinkers a chance to display their ability

Time consuming to administer.
Validity remains questionable.

Educational Psychologists

Invaluable in identifying high ability linked to complex issues e.g. areas of SEN.

Time consuming and expensive.
Unnecessary for most gifted pupils.

Parents and Peers

Intimate knowledge of the individual.
Takes account of performance outside school.

Subjective, based on own experience and knowledge. Difficult to give clear criteria.