The exams were administered in 1995, with little organized opposition. The explicit intent in Britain is to use the exams to direct changes in schooling, an intent that is also common in many U.S. reform proposals. The government envisioned parents using exam scores to choose schools. The consequent high stakes would supposedly force schools to improve. The essential question, then, is whether the changes will produce improvement in learning.
Critics say the answer is no.
Instead, they argue, the pressure of testing will narrow curriculum and instruction. Teachers will limit their forms of teaching and the work students do to the tests content and format. Barrs and others add that national data can be obtained by evaluating samples of student work accumulated over time. This is an approach recommended by the National Forum on Assessment s Principles and Indicators for Student Assessment System s for providing accountability information. Barrs argues that this approach can simultaneously strengthen classroom instruction and assessment, and provide much richer information to parents and the public.