Yacapaca

Thanks to the 1500 students who trialled the KS3 Computing Baseline Beta last year, and the teachers who very thoughtfully filled out the survey about it, I have been able to produce a new version that is both thorough and practical.

Here’s what is in it:

• Three levels of standard baseline test. You should start with the simplest, and work up. The tests cover a broad spectrum of Computing topics, and they have good key-concept analytics. Once they are done, you should have a strong overview of what your cohort does and does not know.
• Three separate quizzes on programming languages (Kodu, Python and Scratch). It did not make sense to mix these in with the main baseline because teachers generally speaking already know which languages their students have not covered. Including questions known to be irrelevant simply pollutes the analytics.

Once the new quizzes have been calibrated (within a week, I expect), you will be able to see the results as National Curriculum levels. And yes, I know that’s contentious. Here’s my view on the issue (and here is my letter to Nicky Morgan about it), and here is the petition to get NC Levels restored before there is total chaos. Please sign!

You can also choose to view the results as predicted GCSE Levels (any use at KS3? Probably not, but it is there as a choice). If popular alternative grade schemes emerge, you will be able to use those too.

Check out the new KS3 Computing Baseline here.