Insights into the assessment and accreditation of National Professional Qualifications (NPQs) 

The 2021 NPQ framework introduced specialist and leadership NPQs into the menu of professional development opportunities to support the ‘golden thread’ of career pathways for teachers and school leaders.  

The delivery model of 9 national Lead Providers allows for the involvement of Teaching School Hubs, Multi-Academy Trusts and other designated delivery partners to support high quality professional development in line with the DfE’s vision for school improvement and workforce development, and the link to teacher retention. 

Etio (formerly Tribal Education Services) has been a key partner in these programmes since 2018, and in the current framework has the responsibility for the validation and verification of the NPQ final assessment tasks as the DfE’s appointed External Moderator. 

Since the introduction of the 2021 frameworks, 10 NPQs are now available for teachers and leaders to embark upon to stretch and challenge their current and future leadership development and pathways. All 10 frameworks are rich in evidence-based learning, research and literature with the involvement of the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) key to this, having developed the frameworks and the key ‘learn that’ and ‘learn how to’ statements within each of the content areas. Evidence-based theory into evidence-based practice. 

Lead Providers have the flexibility in both the delivery model of the programmes, and the assessment activities to ‘test’ the learning of participants in both a formative and summative way. However, it is the final summative assessment task, (externally moderated by Etio) that the participants carry out following the completion of their programmes that determines the successful accreditation, and award of an NPQ. This is a most important element for any teacher in their career pathway and progression. 

The first two years’ cohorts of NPQ participants have completed programmes and have or are about to submit their responses to the summative assessment tasks set by their respective Lead Providers. In those two years (academic years 2021/22 and 2022/23) 56,167 participants have completed their NPQ, with another 7,833 expected to submit from the second leadership cohort of 2022/23 this coming September/October. Etio has externally moderated 5,459 of these submissions to date to ensure the assessment process and participant outcomes are correct, and in line with each Lead Provider’s mark scheme and criteria for a pass level at the respective NPQ. Therefore, the evidence base to provide some insight into the award of an NPQ is significant. The following provides some interesting facts, challenges and questions based on these findings overall.   

• It is anticipated that pass rates for future cohorts will be broadly similar. This provides good evidence of the positive impact that the NPQ programmes are having in preparing future school leaders and effective professional development of the workforce. 

• During external moderation there have been 91 submissions where the assessment outcomes have not been agreed (overturns). This is only 1.7% of all included in the external moderator sample. 66 of those overturns have been with Lead Providers (4) using the Comparative Judgment (No More Marking) assessment model (72.5%). 

• This is the first NPQ framework where Lead Providers have developed their own assessment models in partnership with assessment providers or through in-house expertise. Currently there is only one Lead Provider that is not working with an external assessment partner. 

Challenges

• Each question for the participant to tackle in the case study scenario provided for summative assessment does have a common thread, and there is an emphasis on the participant needing to understand and demonstrate what they might implement as part of a solution to an area identified for improvement, and more importantly how they would approach this. The link to EEF’s implementation guidance is clear, but not always fully incorporated in a way that any proposals would be effective and sustainable. The better participants sometimes appear to have had such experiences in their own settings, whilst poorer responses are typified by a generic response, not linked to context. 

• Because of 9 Lead Providers using different assessment models and mark schemes, it is a challenge to compare an NPQ completed with one provider against another. 

Questions

• A key question is whether the NPQ is a national qualification in the truest sense from an assessment and accreditation perspective. In real terms each Lead Provider is the awarding body, yet the accreditation is through the DfE. 

• In future frameworks for NPQs, and any other nationally designed teacher professional development, should there be a national assessment model that all designated providers adhere to? And should there be a national assessment and accreditation provider? 

• What type of summative assessment (if any) best suits this formal accreditation, and how does that fit into other department policies and expectations, e.g. teacher recruitment and retention, teacher workforce, and workload reform? 

• How does the current, and any future assessment model for NPQs ensure robustness of outcomes when a qualification is mandatory, e.g. NPQSENCo? 

About NPQs

• NPQs are accredited professional development for school teachers and leaders in every phase of education​, with a focus on practical, evidence-based school improvement​.
• 10 programmes (5 specialist; 5 leadership)​ are delivered by nine Lead Providers, each with their own system for summative assessment​, with assessment design overseen by the Department for Education.

Find out more and get in touch with the team at Etio.