Back in the days when schools used a ‘Levels’ based assessment policy it was not uncommon to see approaches with 6,7 or even 9 bands for the overall Assessment Summary.
A number of legacy tracking systems perpetuated this issue with default bandings split further into ‘Mastery, Mastery Plus, Mastery Plus Plus’ and so forth.
This approach has now been generally discredited and abandoned, and within Learning Ladders we have always adopted a far simpler approach of 4 possible overall Assessment Summary bands.
This gives far greater clarity - after all in a 9 band system what is the difference between band 6 and band 7 - and has proven to be popular with schools and regulators around the world.
The system still allows for multiple bands within the assessments of each individual objective (or ‘rung’), but we generally recommend sticking to 4 bands (or less) here as well.
And of course by using Summative Assessment data for external comparisons and benchmarking, this means internal Formative Assessments can be ring-fenced for what they’re intended - helping teachers identify gaps and plan learning opportunities.
If you’d like to discuss this area in more detail, do get in touch as the optimum assessment approach will always depend on your own curriculum and your own content.
You can contact the team by emailing support@learningladders.info.