Scaled Scores at Key Stage 1 – Conversion Tables 2016 Released

At the end of key stage 1 (KS1) in 2016 teacher assessments are to be used to report on the progress of pupils. 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 have been introduced with the new tests in 2016 in an attempt to ensure accurate comparisons of pupil performance over time. A pupil’s scaled score is based on their raw scores from the tests. The raw score is the total number of marks a pupil scores in a test, based on the number of questions they answered correctly. The difficulty of tests varies each year and so the conversion of raw scores to scaled scores will vary from year to year to try to take account of this.

A scaled score of 100 will always represent the expected standard on the test. Pupils scoring 100 or more will have met the expected standard on the test.

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

Calculating Raw Scores

Each of the KS1 tests has 2 papers. You add the scores from both papers to calculate the raw score for the test in each subject.

Range of Scaled Scores

The range of scaled scores available for each test is the same and will stay the same in future years. 85 is the lowest scaled score that can be awarded on a KS1 tests. The highest scaled score is 115.

A scaled score of 100 or more represents the expected standard in each test.

A pupil awarded a score of 99 or less has not met the expected standard in the test.

On the conversion tables, pupils need to have achieved a minimum raw score before they can be awarded the lowest scaled score. Pupils below the minimum raw score have not demonstrated sufficient understanding of the KS1 curriculum. These pupils should probably be assessed using the pre-key stage standards. Pupils below the minimum scaled score should be awarded an N for the test.

The conversion tables also show that sometimes 2 or more raw scores convert to the same scaled score. This is because data from pupils who took the tests early to inform our standard setting exercise showed that the attainment of pupils who scored these total marks was not very different. There are also times when it is not possible to achieve a particular scaled score on this test. This is because of the limited number of questions in these tests, although it may be possible in future years.

Using and Interpreting Test Outcomes

The evidence from the test will inform your teacher assessments. For example, the tests can provide evidence that a pupil has met one or more of the ‘pupil can’ statements. 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. They test the knowledge a pupil has acquired across the whole of the key stage. Pupils can score the same raw scores overall by answering different questions correctly. 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 gets a question wrong in the test on an area of the curriculum that a teacher thought was secure, the teacher should take this into consideration before awarding their teacher assessment.

This has been edited from the DfE website, linked here