Building core literacy, numeracy and digital skills in the first phase of upper secondary education in Northern Ireland

5. Policy issue 3. Using assessment data to promote learning progress

This section sets out the main challenges in Northern Ireland regarding the collection of student progress and performance data and how these data are used by schools and at a system level. It discusses the importance of reliable and robust standardised assessment data for monitoring system progress, and for informing school-level actions.

Policy issue 3: Assessment data to promote progress

At present, there is a lack of full cohort assessment data that would give teachers reliable insights into student progress and achievement at the end of Key Stage 3 / start of Key Stage 4. With limited insights about student performance, schools and teachers may struggle to make appropriate decisions about what qualifications a student should take, and GCSE performance reporting has an outsized role that influences schools’ incentives.

Option 1: Provide greater skills and knowledge diagnosis with increased scope for targeted support

• The current shift toward mandatory, standardised assessments should help meet the systemic need for information on student outcomes at the start of Key Stage 4.

Option 2: Consider focussing school performance measures on progress or contextualised indicators

• Northern Ireland could focus performance reporting on the contribution schools make to student learning, via contextualised indicators.

Option 3: Promote a broader focus on school quality beyond qualification achievement

• The future of performance reporting should align coherently with school evaluation to create a coherent overall system of school improvement and system accountability.

5.1. Northern Ireland lacks reliable measures of student progress prior to Key Stage 4

Northern Ireland currently has no central full cohort assessments of literacy and numeracy to monitor student progress and system performance prior to GCSEs at Key Stage 4 – although new statutory assessments are due to be implemented from 2030, following the recent announcement of Northern Ireland’s new Policy Framework for Statutory Assessment in Northern Ireland (NI Dept. of Education, 2026[13]).1 Prior to the new policy framework, as an interim measure, Northern Ireland has been implementing sample assessments in literacy and numeracy at the end of Key Stages 1, 2 and 3 (i.e. in primary and lower secondary) since 2025/26. These sample assessments provide key information about system performance, and the new statutory assessments from 2030 onwards should go further and provide schools with data to enable early and accurate identification of needs and to support high-quality learning for all students (Givan, 2026[55]). Since 2024, Northern Ireland’s CCEA has also been providing online diagnostic assessments for schools. However, these adaptive assessments are newly introduced, optional and are not used across all schools.

5.1.1. Schools need a reliable, valid measure of learning at the start of Key Stage 4

In the absence of a reliable, valid measure of student learning, schools in Northern Ireland have frequently been using commercially available diagnostic assessments around the start of Key Stage 4. These assessments typically focus on cognitive abilities rather than curriculum-specific knowledge and skills. The tests are used to generate predictive analyses regarding potential student outcomes e.g. predicted GCSE achievement. Schools use this information to inform ability grouping and which qualifications students take. For example, such tests may influence whether students are encouraged to take only GCSEs, or also some non-GCSE qualifications. The results also influence the tiers – foundation or higher – that students take for GCSE Maths.

Internationally, many countries use similar commercial tests to assess their students’ learning. Across the OECD on average, over half (61.4%) of students attend upper secondary schools where they are tested at least once a year using standardised tests that are not required by government policy. However, the use of such tests is significantly higher in Northern Ireland, 88.1% of students attend schools where such tests are used at least once a year (OECD, 2023[10]). When commercial tests are the only assessments used by schools across a cohort, it raises several challenges. Most immediately for schools, such tests are costly. The widespread use of commercial tests also indicates a clear need for greater assessment and learning information in schools. It is inefficient for system monitoring that there is widespread use of testing without any central collection of information about student learning in line with national expectations.

There are also challenges around these tests from a validity and fairness perspective. Schools use the results from commercial tests to determine the qualifications that students take during Key Stage 4 (e.g. how many GCSEs they take, which GCSEs and the levels at which they take qualifications). Students’ qualifications at Key Stage 4 inform their post-16 and even higher education options. This means that commercial tests, which are not curriculum-based and do not provide information about student learning in line with national expectations, carry important consequences for students’ pathways. Internationally, when systems provide differentiated options and choice in upper secondary education, standardised information about academic performance is important to ensure fair and unbiased decision making (OECD, 2023[56]).

5.2. Current performance reporting at the end of Key Stage 4 may not fully capture the education system’s performance

One of the key performance measures for Northern Ireland’s education system is the share of students achieving five A*-Cs at GCSE or equivalent. This indicator is reported nationally as part of the Programme for Government and individual schools report their own data in their prospectuses for incoming students (NI Dept of Education, 2003[19]). This measure and other related measures are also widely reported in the media in Northern Ireland, comparing results across individual schools.

Internationally, reporting national examination results as part of education system accountability is common. At the upper secondary level, few systems have national assessments and instead use data from national certificates and exams to monitor school and system level performance (OECD, 2023[11]). However, in Northern Ireland the absence of other forms of accountability information (many schools have not participated in inspections by the Education and Training Inspectorate as a part of action short of strike), combined with school choice and selection upon entry to some schools creates a predominant focus on GCSE results across the education system.

5.2.1. Reporting raw GCSE results provides limited information about school performance

Northern Ireland has public, selective “grammar” schools which students access via an optional entry test. Given their selective nature, grammar schools concentrate high achieving students. Despite the widely different student profile across Northern Ireland’s schools – which includes grammar or selective and non‑selective schools – the same performance measures are used across all schools. All schools must publish the share of students achieving five A*-Cs at GCSE or equivalent2 (NI Dept of Education, 2003[19]).

In many systems, there is a focus on top headline figures of raw performance in national exams at the end upper secondary. Across the OECD, among systems with available data, over half (20 out of 31) report that the media use results from upper secondary exams to generate school rankings (OECD, 2023[11]). However, some countries take measures to provide fuller pictures of student performance. In systems with prior performance data, a value-added score might be used. A value-added measure typically compares prior achievement based on a standardised assessment close to student entry to the institution, with their performance at the end based on results from standardised assessments (e.g. examinations). For example, in England, the Progress 8 score compares a student’s progress at the end of Key Stage 2 (the end of primary education) based on national assessments in reading and maths and their achievement in qualifications at the end of Key Stage 4. At the school level, the results are used to indicate if students made more, similar or less progress than students at other schools across the country (DfE, 2025[57]). In France, the value-added scores discussed in Box 4 also include data about socio-economic background, notably at the student and school level.

Box 4. “La valeur ajoutée” or valued-added measures for schools in France

France develops “value-added” indicators based on the contribution of each collège – lower secondary, 11-15 years and lycée – upper secondary, 15-18 years, to students’ initial levels of learning. The value-added indicators are based on students’ initial learning levels from the results of standardised national assessments. For the collège, information about students’ prior learning levels comes from national, full cohort assessments that students take in September when they enter the collège. For the lycée, the information about prior learning is taken from a national certificate – the diplôme national du brevet – that students take at the end of the collège.

The measures also take into account the socio-economic background of students, such as their age, gender, and social background. The background of the collège or lycée is also included, such as the share of girls, share of students who have repeated a year and the overall socio-economic profile of the school.

Source: Ministère de l'Éducation nationale (n.d.[58]), Les indicateurs de résultats des collèges et des lycées, https://www.education.gouv.fr/les-indicateurs-de-resultats-des-colleges-et-des-lycees-377729 (accessed 7 July 2025); Direction de l'évaluation, de la prospective et de la performance (2024[59]), Indicateurs de valeur ajoutée des établissements, https://www.education.gouv.fr/media/154661/download.

5.2.2. Focussing on the share of GCSEs at A* – C or equivalents influences schools’ incentives

Reporting the share of students achieving A*-C Grades at GCSEs (or equivalent) creates incentives for schools to maximise the share of students achieving at this level. This can be positive and encourage schools to provide the most appropriate support for students to ensure that they achieve this measure. This is valuable for students because five A*-C GCSEs are typically the entrance requirements for most post-16 qualifications such as A Levels and the main vocational qualifications in Northern Ireland and across the United Kingdom as a whole.

However, focussing school performance reporting on the share of GCSEs or equivalent qualifications also creates tensions for schools, particularly when determining the qualifications students take. For students perceived to be at the border of achieving a Grade C or D in GCSEs, schools might consider entering them for non-GCSE qualifications. Such qualifications are considered to be equivalently levelled to GCSEs. However, stakeholders in Northern Ireland raised questions about the robustness and rigour of some non‑GCSE qualifications, and they may constrain students’ post-16 learning options. A challenge of the current accreditation process for qualifications is the absence of a review of a qualification’s overall “quality’” and alignment with expected learning goals for students by the end of Key Stage 4. This creates the risk that schools and students choose qualifications that are technically “equivalent” but where the learning is not as comparably deep or broad as GCSEs. The tensions that schools face when determining the most appropriate qualification for a student are exacerbated by school choice and schools may feel competition to maintain their reputation and student numbers.

5.3. Policy options for using assessment data to promote learning progress

Northern Ireland can consider the following policy options for the collection and use of assessment data to support student progress and to better measure schools’ contributions to achievement in literacy and numeracy.

5.3.1. Provide greater skills and knowledge diagnosis with increased scope for targeted support

There is a need for more robust and comparable measures of students’ learning around the start of Key Stage 4. Most (28 out of 32) OECD countries have national assessments in lower secondary education (OECD, 2023[11]). National assessments for lower secondary education tend to be used diagnostically, providing teachers with insights about what students know and the skills they have in the assessed subject areas. Without a clear, baseline understanding of students’ progress and achievement in relation to clearly defined curriculum expectations, it is difficult for schools to make arrangements to best support students’ next steps in their learning.

Northern Ireland has recently set out a long-term approach to statutory assessment. In April 2026, taking on board the recommendations of the Independent Review of Assessment Panel, the Department of Education published a new Policy Framework for Statutory Assessment (NI Dept. of Education, 2026[13]). The framework sets out a pathway from Year 1 to Year 10 that includes various different assessments at certain grade levels. The first statutory Year 4 assessments under the new model are scheduled for March 2030, with Year 7 and Year 10 assessments following in March 2031 (NI Dept. of Education, 2026[13]; Givan, 2026[55]). For Key Stage 4, the Year 10 assessments would provide valuable, standardised information on students’ literacy, numeracy and science attainment just before Key Stage 4 begins. This responds to the systemic need for standardised information on student outcomes at the start of Key Stage 4 and to the desire from teachers – as reported to the OECD team during workshops and as evidenced by the widespread use of commercial testing – for greater assessment insights.

A “low-stakes for students”, “low workload for teachers” test-based national assessment system, as planned, could be an effective way to provide teachers with insights about student progress and achievement to better scaffold next steps. A test-based approach, with standardised items, would have the advantage that student responses can be broken down by categories of items, enabling teachers to identify areas where students have learning gaps or are struggling, with a clear view of where students in their class sit relative to national average performance. At a system level, data from test-based national assessments could play a key role in driving system incentives towards improvements focussed on enhancing learning outcomes.

5.3.2. Consider focussing school performance measures on progress or contextualised indicators

Accountability measures are important to ensure that all students are being supported to reach their full potential. Current reporting on school performance may not achieve these goals because students’ starting points across schools are widely different, and data therefore does not provide a full picture of how far each school supports each student to advance. This makes comparisons across schools based on qualification results potentially misleading because selective schools are likely to group together high performing students from the outset.

Northern Ireland might consider focussing performance reporting on the contribution schools make to student learning while they are attending the school. Implementation of such contextualised indicators requires a baseline assessment in order to measure progress gains during upper secondary. For example, the Progress 8 measure in England and the French value-added scores (les indicators de valueur ajoutée des établissements) use prior student achievement information from standardised assessments. In Northern Ireland, statutory assessments prior to Key Stage 4 could provide such baseline data, but this would need to be carefully considered as Northern Ireland has already indicated that data from statutory assessments will not be used to evaluate schools (NI Dept. of Education, 2026[13]).

5.4. Promote a broader focus on school quality beyond qualification achievement

In 2024, the Northern Ireland Education and Training Inspectorate published and piloted a new framework for school inspection to constructively support school improvement (ETI, 2024[60]). The renewed school inspection framework examines and evaluates broader dimensions of educational quality, including school vision and culture, pedagogical practices and inclusive support for diverse learning needs, alongside school performance data. Such evaluations serve several purposes: providing schools with developmental feedback, offering parents richer information about prospective schools and providing policymakers with evolving school practices, strengths and weaknesses.

Schools that participated in discussions with the OECD reported positively on the consultation and development processes underpinning the framework, and they indicated that they felt that the new approach would support a more holistic consideration of schools’ strengths and areas for improvement. The design of any new approaches to performance reporting must align coherently with school evaluation, to create a coherent overall system of school improvement and system accountability.

Notes

← 1.  National assessments do not have stakes for students, and are used for system-level monitoring, school-level monitoring and/or informing pedagogical practice and next steps for teaching and learning.

← 2.  Grammar schools must also publish the share of students achieving seven A*-Cs at GCSE.