Are written exams, as the sole means of assessing learning, the best way for young people to demonstrate the knowledge, skills and abilities they have gained during their education?

Rethinking Assessment don’t think so. They believe that the UK’s current assessment system isn’t working and that it’s time for change that recognises the full breadth of every young person’s strengths and achievements.

In the UK, exams dictate both what is taught and how it is taught, with headteachers saying they feel high stakes exams distort priorities and stop them from providing a well-rounded education for pupils.

Competition for grades is not equitable and a degree of failure is built into the system. The ‘forgotten third’ refers to the proportion of students who are destined to fail their GCSEs in maths and English, in order for two thirds to pass and for the system to work.

Many young people find the way the exam system works increasingly stressful and not a true reflection of what they can do or are good at. Furthermore current assessments are not giving universities, colleges or employers the kind of information they want when trying to ascertain a young person’s capabilities.

The mission of Rethinking Assessment is to recognise the strengths of every young person so that no one leaves school or college with just a set of exam numbers and letters. Their work aims to make the case for change, and provide evidence for a fairer, broader, strengths-based and more equitable assessment system.

Rethinking Assessment has been learning from, and building on, best practices around the world to design an approach to assessment that helps every young person to thrive. Working on practical ideas and approaches to be piloted in schools, they have identified a powerful way forward - Learner Profiles - drawing on work underway in the USA and Australia in particular.

Rethinking Assessment’s vision is for every young person to put together a Learner Profile during their 14 year learning journey, including evidence of what they can do, what they have achieved, the story of their learning and a portfolio of their best work.

Young people will start creating their Learner Profile at school, topping it up as they go to demonstrate a range of achievements and show the breadth of their knowledge and capabilities. The profile will give universities, training providers and employers real information about the young person’s competencies in crucial skills and provide a rounded picture that goes beyond a set of exam grades.

In 2022, Big Change funded Rethinking Assessment to develop a prototype of the Learner Profile and test it with all key stakeholders including: education providers, employers, universities, training providers, and crucially learners themselves.

The Learner Profile’s framework recognises and evidences young people’s breadth of strengths across knowledge, skills and dispositions. It has four main components:

1. The building blocks of literacy, numeracy, oracy and digital skills.
2. Courses (single subjects, applied learning interdisciplinary).
3. An extended project qualification or equivalent project.
4. A Dispositions Wheel (creative thinking, communication, collaboration.

In 2023, the team launched the 'Blueprint for Change' report setting out the rationale and vision for an assessment system that values the strengths of every child.

Rosie, Head of Rethinking Assessment is an education specialist who has led projects and initiatives spanning education, skills, technology and lifelong learning. Her work bridges policy and practice, systems thinking and social change. Rosie has wide-ranging experience building new education programmes, and working at the level of communities and government to drive change. She started out working for the Studio Schools Trust, setting up new schools across England which bridge education and industry, and for a digital skills start-up which created pop up design labs in schools. More recently, Rosie was an Associate Director at the Royal Society of Arts leading the Cities of Learning programme, and has worked with Ashoka, the Global Education Leaders Partnership and the World Innovation Summit for Education developing the field of learning ecosystems globally.

"Redefining what success looks like in school, and what we value as a society, is a passion of mine driven by personal experience. Having seen how things can be done differently, and visited places where young people leave education with their self-esteem enhanced and a sense of purpose and agency, it begs the question why every young person can’t have the experiences and recognition that enables this for them. Our assessment system, which labels so many as ‘not able’, ‘low achieving’ or as failures, is a fundamental injustice. As Andreas Schleicher says: “We must distribute the core asset of our times, human potential, far more equitably. In the past it was sufficient to sort students because our economies could rely on a few highly educated individuals. Today, we need all learners to participate and contribute to the world.”

Rosie Clayton, Head of Rethinking Assessment