Benchmarks for Numeracy and Mathematics

 

Follow this link for the Benchmarks for Numeracy and Mathematics, which have now been published by Education Scotland to support teacher professional judgement of achievement of a level.

The Benchmarks aim to set out clear statements about what children need to know and be able to do to achieve each level of the curriculum. They streamline and embed a wide range of existing assessment guidance (significant aspects of learning and progression frameworks) into one key resource to support teachers’ professional judgement.

Guidance from Education Scotland is that the core resources for practitioners are the Experiences and Outcomes for planning, and the Benchmarks to support assessments and tracking progression.

“Assessment is an on-going process to support learning. The Benchmarks should be used to help monitor progress towards achievement of a level and to support overall professional judgement of when a learner has achieved a curriculum level. They support professional dialogue, moderation and monitoring of progress in learning.
Evidence of progress and achievement will come from:
•observing day-to-day learning within, and outwith, the classroom.
•coursework, including tests.
•learning conversations.
•planned periodic holistic assessments.
•information from standardised assessments.”

This offers a much clearer and more streamlined resource for practitioners, and supports the use of the Highland Numeracy Progression, diagnostic assessments and trackers to give evidence of learning and progression for individual learners.

Development is now ongoing to update the Highland Numeracy Progression and ensure it incorporates this new guidance. Follow the blog to make sure you are kept up to date with progress!