SATs

In the UK, formal assessment of children's educational standards. Children are assessed at the end of each Key Stage of the National Curriculum, in English and maths at 7, and English, maths, and science at 11 and 14. The vast majority take GCSE examinations at 16 at the end of Key Stage 4. Results are expressed in a series of ‘levels’ with the desirable outcome set at Level 2 at 7, Level 4 at 11, and Level 5 or 6 at 14. The results of the assessments are aggregated by school and the results published, although very small schools, where so few children are assessed that they might be identifiable from the results, do not have to publish their scores. The aggregated results for Local Education Authorities (LEAs) are also published. The results are used to produce comparative league tables of school and LEA performance, although teachers complain that these do not reflect the relative difficulties of children in different areas and social groups.

The government uses the results of the assessments to set targets at school, LEA, and national level. Its first objective is to ensure that 80% of 11-year-olds have reached Level 4 standard in the core National Curriculum subjects by the year 2002.