A new online assessment product for Key Stage 2 reading and
maths, designed to help teachers save time is being launched by
NFER this September, starting with Years 3 and 4.
NFER Online Assessments
(NOA) provide interactive, standardised tests that are fun and
engaging for pupils to use and deliver reliable information for
teachers for diagnostic and summative assessment purposes. The
test questions have been specifically developed for use in a
digital environment, ensuring their accuracy as an assessment
tool.
Seventy per cent of all NOA questions are marked automatically,
saving teachers valuable time. The remaining 30 per cent are
teacher-marked to ensure there is teacher-level insight into
‘open-ended' and ‘show your working' questions.
NOA also has an easy-to-use, in-built reporting tool which
teachers and school leaders can use to monitor pupil and
class-level attainment across specific curriculum areas such as
addition and subtraction for maths or making inferences from
texts for reading.
Pupils will engage with age-appropriate questions while NFER's
interactive guide, NOA the Panda, will help them navigate their
way through the test.
One primary school involved in the trial of NOA earlier this year
commented: “It was a very efficient system and easy to use.
Children were able to work independently. The data produced was
useful and effective. We were very impressed.”
Covering reading and maths curricula across autumn, spring, and
summer terms, NOA has been standardised using over 30,000
completed assessments to provide an accurate sample size for data
and reporting purposes.
From today, Wednesday 1st May, teachers can sign-up to receive
their own video sample of the new online assessments. NFER will
also be offering demonstration webinars of the product on
Tuesday 21st and Thursday 23rd May.
From Monday 3rd June, schools can also gain access to their own demo
account of NOA, where they can try out sample tests and use
the NOA reporting tool to sample the various reports and filters.
Alan Read, Chief Digital Officer at the National Foundation for
Educational Research said:
“We're very proud of NOA's quality and can't wait to see it being
used in schools from September. Our expert assessment
designers have worked with schools to develop onscreen
assessments that are easy to use, engaging for pupils and save
teacher's administration and marking time.
“The standardised, termly tests provide an accurate evaluation of
achievement, misconceptions and progress over time at individual
pupil, group, class and school or MAT level via a range of
easy-to-use reports. The demo available to schools will give
users a real taste of the KS2 maths and reading suite.”
NFER's Years 5 and 6 NOA offering will launch in autumn 2025
following the collection of trials data for the autumn, spring,
and summer assessments which will take place during the 2024-2025
academic year.
ENDS
NOTES TO EDITORS
NOA adds to NFER's wider assessment portfolio which includes
NFER's widely used paper-based tests. These tests are trusted by
thousands of schools and are available in the core subjects for
termly use across years 1-6. Backed up by more than 75 years of
assessment research, NFER Tests and NFER Online Assessments have
been developed by in-house assessment experts, in collaboration
with teachers.
NOA will be available to purchase in two ways:
- Individual Tokens – one token is equivalent to one assessment
per pupil, per subject, year group and term e.g. a year 3 autumn
term reading token.
- Subscriptions – a one-year subscription per subject that can
be purchased at any time, providing unlimited access to all
autumn, spring, and summer assessments.
Schools and Academy Trusts will be able to purchase NOA products
online via NFER's Resources Shop from
Monday 2ndSeptember 2024.
