Key Stage 1 – 2017 Conversion Tables

As in 2016 teacher assessments are to be used to report on the outcomes of pupils at the end of KS1.

These assessments will take into account a pupil’s performance in national curriculum tests (SATs) in mathematics, English reading and English grammar, punctuation and spelling. Scaled scores are used to report the outcomes of these tests so that results can be compared over time.

What is a scaled score?

A pupil’s scaled score is based on their raw score. The raw score is the total number of marks a pupil scores in a test. The tests are developed each year to the same specification, however, because the questions are different the difficulty of tests may vary slightly each year. This means the conversion of the raw scores pupils get into scaled scores may vary from year to year to ensure accurate comparisons of pupil performance can be made over time.

A scaled score of 100 will always represent the expected standard on the test. Pupils scoring at least 100 will have met the expected standard on the test. In 2016, a panel of teachers set the raw score required to meet the expected standard. Data from trialling was used to maintain that standard for the 2017 tests.

Teachers mark the KS1 tests and calculate the raw scores each pupil achieves for each test. To convert raw scores to scaled scores, you need to use the conversion tables here.

In summary the raw scores that equate to a scaled score of 100 in 2017 are:

• Reading 25 out of 40 (up 3 from 2016 when 100 scaled score was 22 out of 40);
• GPS 24 out of 40 (down 1 from 2016 when 100 scaled score was 25 out of 40); and
• Maths 36 out of 60 (down 1 from 2016 when 100 scaled score was 37 out of 60).

Using and interpreting test outcomes

You should use evidence from the test to inform your teacher assessment judgement for each pupil. For example, the tests can provide evidence that a pupil has met one or more of the ‘pupil can’ statements in the interim teacher assessment frameworks. However, given that tests and teacher assessment are different forms of assessment, it is not necessary for the outcomes to be the same.

The national curriculum tests are summative. This means they test the knowledge a pupil has acquired across the whole of the key stage. The tests are also compensatory: pupils score marks from any part of the test and pupils with the same total score can achieve their marks in different ways. The interim teacher assessment frameworks are different. They rely on achieving a ‘secure fit’ which means pupils have to demonstrate attainment of all the ‘pupil can’ statements to be awarded a standard.

This means it is possible for a pupil to have met the expected standard in the test, but not for teacher assessment, because of particular gaps in their knowledge or understanding. It will also be possible for pupils to have demonstrated their attainment of the ‘pupil can’ statements through their classwork but not to have achieved the mark for a related question on the test given the context in which the question was asked. If a pupil does get a question wrong in the test on an area of the curriculum that the teacher thought was secure, the teacher will want to take this into consideration when making their teacher assessment judgement.

Taken together, these 2 types of assessments will provide a broader picture of pupil attainment.

This has been edited from the DfE website, linked here.