Computing in key stage 4 Determining the way forward

In March 2017, the CAS Board and working group recognised that there was a number of concerned voices and alarming trends appearing within the teaching and assessment of Computing at key stage 4. The CAS Board has asked the CAS Assessment working group to write a policy paper about key stage 4 assessment for computing, consulting with CAS members, awarding organisations, and other stakeholders.

As a result, 2 national surveys and 4 meetings around the country were organised - Meetings.pdf

The report of this exercise went through many iterations. The documents were always ‘public’ and open to editing by attendees of the meetings during the meetings and also open to members of the Assessment working group after the meetings. The final report was also scrutinised by the CAS Board.

Computing for All in key stage 4 proposals were outlined at https://goo.gl/4fJOuP Further developments of the proposal are being undertaken under CAS Future Citizen.

The surveys grew from discussions in June 2017; analysis took place in July 2017 and published in August 2017. An early documentation of the developments is at https://goo.gl/m1l8YJ The significant discussion took place at the Birmingham meeting. The documents associated with the design, release, data and analysis include:

• CASsurvey_keyfindings
• CASsurvey_presentation.pptx
• CASsurvey_summary
• long-survey_responses.csv – raw data
• long-survey.csv – questions
• short-survey_responses.csv – raw data
• short-survey.csv – questions

The report has been compiled by members of the CAS Assessment working group; it is a consensus. However, individuals may differ in opinions on specific matters. We value the contribution of teachers with posts of responsibility in schools, employees of assessment organisations and commercial enterprises and colleagues in teacher training and educational research. No inference should be made from the proposals in this report regarding the policies and procedures of individual colleagues’ organisations.

Many CAS members were involved in this process, some making a most significant contribution to the documents. The ambition has always been to represent the views of practitioners in key stage 4 using the academic, commercial and research knowledge of other members to best represent the arguments. Our thanks should go to the members who gave up their time to attend meetings and subsequently contributed to the developing documents.

This report is a consensus. However, individuals may differ in opinions on specific matters. We value the contribution of teachers with posts of responsibility in schools, employees of assessment organisations and commercial enterprises and colleagues in teacher training and educational research. No inference should be made from the proposals in this report regarding the policies and procedures of individual colleagues’ organisations.

John Woollard Chair CAS Assessment working group August 2017