Reviewing curriculum for excellence will be difficult

"A MAJOR review of the implementation of Scotland's troubled new curriculum is hamstrung by a lack of vital school information, experts have warned."

"The Royal Society of Edinburgh said a forthcoming investigation into the Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) would find it impossible to draw "valid conclusions" about any impact of the reforms."

"A report by the society's education committee said the problem had arisen because no proper baseline assessments had been done before the introduction of CfE, while the Scottish Government has also withdrawn from a number of international educational surveys which benchmark quality."

"The warning comes after ministers announced in September last year that experts from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) would be called in to evaluate the controversial reforms of what is taught in schools."

"The Paris-based, set up to improve the economic and social well-being of people around the world, is due to report in December 2015."

"A report by the society's education committee states: "The absence of a systematic programme of independent evaluation of CfE has been a long-standing and key concern of the education committee."

"Without high quality evaluation, not only do we not know what is going well and what is not, but we have no way of developing a proper understanding or an ability to plan so that improvements can be made."

"It is our understanding that the OECD review will not undertake an in-depth evaluation of the impact of CfE. Rather, it will adopt a broader, forward-looking perspective on how the CfE reforms are being implemented, making recommendations it deems to be appropriate."

http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/education/review-of-scotlands-new-curriculum-undermined-by-lack-of-evidence.114963692

How does this compare with the recent announcement that Scotland could become a global pioneer by making its curriculum the first to be continually updated ?  If progress is difficult to evaluate because no proper baseline assessments had been done before commencing CfE, then constantly changing the curriculum in the absence of evaluation seems a careless decision.

https://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=6444929