Billy Timmins (Wicklow, Renua Ireland)
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173. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills to set out the reason primary schools are required to make regular test result returns to her Department; the purpose of these results; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [34927/15]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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Data on pupil achievement are essential to inform the quality of pupil learning and national education policy so as to identify ways of improving the performance of our education system. All primary schools are required to report aggregate standardised test results for 2nd, 4th and 6th classes once annually to the Department of Education and Skills. Individual pupil results are not reported to the Department.

Standardised tests are available for reading (in English and Irish) and mathematics at primary level in Ireland. These scientifically constructed tests can provide teachers and parents with information about how well a child's achievement compares with that of children at the same class level in Irish primary schools and the rate of progress that they have made over time.

Standardised tests are one important tool that teachers can use to monitor pupil progress. They do not measure the progress pupils have made in achieving many other important learning outcomes, including, for example, students' oral language abilities or their ability to write creatively.

Aggregating standardised test scores for pupils within different classes can help to inform a school's planning, self-evaluation and external evaluation. They can also help schools to gain a clearer understanding of trends in achievement and they can provide evidence about how well initiatives to promote better learning are working.