Reimagining the future of assessment

AQA Stride: Information for policymakers

As the government considers its vision for curriculum and assessment, AQA is playing its part in re-imagining the future of assessment by addressing some of the key challenges we know are facing many young people and teachers. That’s why we have developed AQA Stride.

Designed to help learners starting or retaking GCSEs, AQA Stride includes five 20-minute tests which help teachers see how strong students’ understanding is of the fundamental mathematical concepts they will need for the course.

Each test is adaptive and personalised to the student so that as they take the test, the system uses the responses provided to select the next, most appropriate question. For students who are struggling, a key challenge they face is overcoming gaps in knowledge from much earlier in their education, but with the added difficulty of not knowing where these gaps occurred. With potentially key foundations missing from their knowledge, this makes learning new content significantly more difficult and in some cases impossible. AQA Stride helps teachers to tackle these gaps because it can identify them after the fact, even many years later, allowing the teacher to tailor a support package to that student. This approach could revolutionise the way we teach students who are struggling, including those who come from disadvantaged backgrounds, who have interacted with the care system, young people with SEND and those taught in non-traditional settings.

As the government reviews the future of curriculum and assessment, it’s vital that we consider how innovative technology can play its part, and we believe AQA Stride can help provide solutions to many of the key challenges schools and the sector face, by:

• Easing teacher time and workload through faster assessment of potential knowledge gaps and avoiding re-teaching concepts the student already grasps well

• Raising standards, including for the most disadvantaged, by pinpointing specific areas of learning to target

• Producing data, insights and analysis to help inform education policy, including curriculum design and teacher training

Based on extensive assessment research and input from leading subject experts, our new tool helps break down barriers and improve outcomes. As an independent charity, AQA is also delighted to be fully funding this tool, so every school can access it regardless of whether they are an AQA customer or not.

To find out more, please see here.

If you have any questions, or would like to discuss AQA Stride further please contact policy@aqa.org.uk