Possibilities, Potential and Best Practice for CAT

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Possibilities, Potential and Best Practice for
CAT HOW TO GET THE BEST FROM COGNITIVE ABILITY
TESTS Tuesday 30th September 2008
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How St. Faiths uses CAT to develop and improve
pupil performance
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Martin Milward Director of Administration
Assessment St. Faiths School, Cambridge
Independent, Non selective, Coeducational Day
School Years F 8, 520 pupils
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Initial Motivation
The need to rationalise standardized assessments
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• To set a baseline against which to assess value
  added by the school
• How well is a child doing for her or his ability
  (as assessed by CAT3) the value added measure
• The facility to track progress and identify
  underachievement (and overachievement) in
  individuals or groups
• To monitor trends or changes in the ability
  profile of the intake over time
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• To identify the possibility of underachievement
  related to gender
• To raise the question of possible learning
  difficulties
• To assess the development of reasoning ability
• An indicator of (long term) potential
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• To inform target setting with national tests at
  Key Stage 2
• To manage the very high expectations of parents
  in recognising the ability of their children
• To help protect colleagues from unnecessary
  scrutiny by parents
• Recognising and remembering that no single
  assessment is watertight