League tables: Changes to Scotland's schools system are due

Details to be released soon will lay out the roadmap for creating a new qualifications system and reformers hope it will level the playing field for students from all backgrounds. 

With The Herald’s School League Tables out today, the focus is squarely on exam assessment and student attainment. 

Despite flaws in the system, measuring the rate of five or more Highers remains how parents, universities and others compare schools.

But that’s likely to change.

Calls for fewer exams have dominated discussions surrounding the Independent Review of Qualifications and Assessment (IRQA).

Led by Prof Louise Hayward, the IRQA kicked off last year and has since published a set of proposals to replace Scotland’s qualifications system with a new model: the Scottish Diploma of Achievement (SDA).

Cutting down on standardised testing is only one piece of the SDA’s roadmap.

READ MORE: Why school league tables are no way to judge a school

Prof Hayward and her team also made room for more real-world applications in the curriculum, more cooperation between employers and educators, and opportunities for students to showcase their extracurricular achievements in a meaningful way.

An interim report from March provided a sketch of the SDA, and the final IRQA report is awaiting a response from the Scottish Government.

It will be up to the government to determine which of the IRQA’s wide-ranging proposals make it into classrooms.

Curriculum for Excellence here to stay

Despite promises of major changes to qualifications, the SDA doesn’t look to replace Scotland’s Curriculum for Excellence (CfE).

According to the IRQA interim report, the CfE provides a strong foundation with its four tenets: building successful learners, confident individuals, responsible citizens and effective contributors.

The problem, instead, is an imbalance in delivery.

According to the IRQA, qualifications have focussed on subject learning at the expense of other achievements.

The SDA offers a possible remedy.

The diploma would be awarded to students who complete all three of its main aspects:

• Subject studies
• Learning in context
• Personal pathway

End of the “two-term dash?”

The first component will be familiar to teachers, students and parents.

Maintaining the system of Highers was a priority for the IRQA team. Many responses to the public consultation called for fewer exams, while still singing the praises of traditional attainment measurements and the importance of fair and objective national exams.

SCOTLAND'S SCHOOL LEAGUE TABLES: CLICK HERE TO FIND YOUR CHILD'S SECONDARY

But if the IRQA’s highest-profile proposal makes it off the cutting floor, it would mean a drop in the number of exams students sit in their careers.

The proposed SDA looks to strike a balance between evidence gathered by individual schools and colleges and student attainment on national exams.

That includes scrapping exams for S4 students who plan to continue in a subject. Instead, they would only sit an external exam at the end of their S5 course.

School and college assessments and coursework would fill the gap.

More space for teacher judgment

In the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic, multiple watchdog reports criticized Scotland for over-testing its pupils.

Chief among these was a highly-critical 2021 OECD report which led the government to scrap the SQA.

The government promised to replace it with a new specialist agency, although the SQA still oversees Scotland’s exams.

During the pandemic years, teacher assessment and teacher judgment had more influence over students’ grades.

Given this glimpse of another approach, Scotland’s high-stakes exam system was called into question when national exams made their return.

The IRQA report agreed that over-examination has put Scottish students behind learners in other countries.

The SDA looks to remedy this by trimming the number of national exams and making more room for teacher assessment.

Learning in context

During the IRQA consultation period, employers made it clear that workplaces are changing rapidly.

They said that students need to begin preparing for the world of work at a young age if they’re going to be successful.

To meet this need, the SDA offers a qualification that will demonstrate a wider range of skills.

Instead of being measured mostly on their recall and exam performance, the SDA’s “learning in context” branch is meant to showcase a student’s teamwork, problem-solving and other practical skills.

SCOTLAND'S SCHOOL LEAGUE TABLES: CLICK HERE TO FIND YOUR CHILD'S SECONDARY

With this, however, comes a need to reshape the education system itself. Depending on which recommendations the Scottish Government approves, it could mean creating new jobs or making changes to existing positions.

It may also mean changes to primary education as well. Education doesn’t happen in a vacuum, and changes to the secondary qualifications system will need roots in early years education.

Personal Pathway

The final aspect of the SDA is the least tangible, but feedback to the IRQA makes it clear that it’s crucial for stakeholders.

Students’ personal pathway achievements will highlight out-of-school activities. But IRQA reports stress that it won’t be a box-ticking exercise or a race to tally the most extracurriculars.

Instead, the SDA gives students opportunities to explain, in their own words, how their extracurricular activities have helped them.

Stage set for Government input

Prof Hayward and the IRQA team submitted their final proposal to the Scottish Government at the end of May.

Implementing the SDA would require changes to school infrastructure and teacher training. 

It would also mean providing explanations for parents and students about what is changing and what the new expectations will be.

SCOTLAND'S SCHOOL LEAGUE TABLES: CLICK HERE TO FIND YOUR CHILD'S SECONDARY

Given the scope of the possible overhaul, the government’s decision could mark the first step in years’ worth of transformations.

But throughout the review process, Prof Hayward made it clear that it will be up to government ministers to determine which of the review’s proposals – if any – come to fruition.

The government has not provided an official timeline for publishing its report, but an announcement is expected as early as this week.