Thread by @MrMcEnaney

Thread- and yes, once again, it's the SNP and standardised tests

So the Scottish Govt has been caught engaging in a "substantial and perverse misinterpretation" of a major academic when defending their shambolic standardised testing policy.

heraldscotland.com/news/17344554.…

The Govt was asked by @scotlibdems to name the experts which support their policy. They didn't name their own international advisers but did explicitly name Prof Dylan Wiliam.

There's just one problem: it isn't even remotely true

The Govt has now tried to defend itself by claiming that they weren't saying Wiliam supports the tests, but rather that he supports *formative assessment*

For the non-teachers, formative assessment is the ongoing, day to day stuff that educators do every day to measure their students' progress. Everyone supports it because it is, literally, the teaching process.

BUT.......

The SNP standardised tests are not really formative assessments at all, despite the claims of politicians and their employees. Indeed, Dylan Wiliam makes this very point himself:

So even the govt's defence (that Wiliam supports formative assessment) doesn't stand up because he himself rejects the notion that the standardised tests can function as formative assessments.

And there's more, because this govt actually has form for misrepresenting the work of Prof Wiliam. They also did it in 2017 while trying to force through pointless structural changes to Scottish education:

https://twitter.com/MrMcEnaney/status/875703002614706176?s=19

It's 3 and a half years since Nicola Sturgeon announced that she would reimpose standardised testing on Scottish schools and at every stage the policy has been a disaster. Even so, blatantly misrepresenting academics shows an extreme level of desperation.

And - quite understandably - Prof Wiliam isn't happy. He has absolutely savaged the Scottish Govt in his response to the story:

Here is @DenholmHT's analysis on the issue, from which the screen grab in the above tweet is taken

heraldscotland.com/news/17344549.…

Even allowing for the lowest of expectations, the kindest thing that could be said about the policymaking around standardised testing is that it has been spectacularly sloppy. Personally I think it's more accurate to describe it as negligent.

And - as ever - driven primarily by political concerns, not the needs of teachers and children.

As per @scotlibdems press release, here is the Scottish Government's FOI response that led to this:

And here's the full response from Prof Wiliam which absolutely savages the government 🤯

At the very, very least John Swinney (who, as minister, is responsible for that FOI response) owes Prof Wiliam a public apology for misrepresenting his views in an official govt release. To be honest, though, this is reflective of the handling of the whole policy.

It's worth noting that if the Tories pulled something like this the SNP would - rightly - be all over them for it. They'd compare it to the tactics if people like Trump and tell us how it shows that the Tories can't be trusted. They'd be right on both counts.

@threadreaderapp unroll please?

Ooft. So it continues as a second academic tears into the SNP misrepresenting him:

heraldscotland.com/news/17348004.…

And again, not just hammering the misrepresentation of them individually but also of formative assessment more broadly.