Harry Torrance : Why are we so obsessed with exams?

From the professorial lecture at the University of Sussex given by the Professor of Education

It's a strange Alice-in-Wonderland World we enter, when we enter the world of examinations and testing; exam passes and test scores have never been higher, yet the moral panic surrounding exams and educational standards continues unabated.

Interestingly enough, however, current stories have a slightly different angle to them, compared to the usual "shock, horror, standards are falling" headlines. Suddenly the headlines are beginning to hint that we may have too much testing, rather than too little. So what on earth is going on here? How on earth did we get into this state, and why as a society are we so obsessed with testing and test results?

It didn't use to be like this. Until the late 1980s the United Kingdom had one of the most decentralised and voluntaristic educational systems in the world; indeed in many respects it would hardly qualify as a national system at all, and this is certainly one of the reasons why the pendulum has swung so far in the opposite direction.

Currently, national curriculum test scores are rising, and primary schools are well on the way to meeting the Government's targets. However, rather than real rises in standards, what is most likely to have led to increases in scores is practising for the tests.

All international research, not to mention personal experience and common sense, suggests that this is what happens when "high stakes" tests are encountered: ie when teachers and students are faced with tests that carry significant consequences for student life chances and teacher accountability, very significant time and energy will be devoted to test preparation. The minimal focus of the testing programme becomes the normal curriculum maximum; teachers and students alike become adept at cramming and, if the consequences of failure are too severe, cheating.

We need to get away from over-reliance on a single high-stakes indicator of performance. Just as important, if not more so, is to continue to develop teachers' formative assessment skills at classroom level. This is where good assessment practice can make a positive difference to the curriculum experiences and quality of learning of individual pupils.