GovWire

We are looking for teachers and other education professionals to join our expert review panels. Review panellists are essential to ensure that the optional KS1 tests, statutory KS2 tests, phonics screening check and RBA are fair, accurate and reflective of current classroom practice.

1. What is a review panellist

As a panellist, you will play a vital role in maintaining the quality and validity of national curriculum assessments. Your experience will provide invaluable insight that will help ensure assessment content is appropriate, accessible and relevant.

What will you do

You will be involved in reviewing assessment materials for the optional KS1 tests, statutory KS2 tests, phonics screening check and RBA. Your responsibilities may include:

• providing feedback on the appropriateness, difficulty and format of assessment questions
• ensuring the assessments accurately reflect the intended curriculum content
• identifying any potential fairness or accessibility issues

As a panel member, you will need to be available for approximately 2 to 4 days a year. Depending on the panel type, this may include reviewing materials remotely or in person.

If we ask you to attend meetings, we will reimburse you for reasonable expenses and pay either your school for supply cover or you directly. If we ask you to review materials in advance, we will also pay you a preparation fee.

You can find more information about the different panels and assessment review processes in section 3.

2. How to become a review panellist

Who can apply

We need teachers and other education professionals from a wide range of schools and geographical areas, who represent our diverse society, to form our:

• teacher panels, who focus on real world classroom experience and how assessments align with current teaching practices
• test and assessment review groups, who focus on the technical accuracy, consistency, and subject-specific aspects of the assessments

Teacher panels are made up of practising teachers and those who have left the profession within the last 3 years, to ensure relevant experience of current teaching practise in particular:

• teachers who have experience of teaching the target age group for the assessment
• English and mathematics subject coordinators
• lead practitioners
• senior leaders such as deputy headteachers or headteachers
• special educational needs co-ordinators
• heads of year or key stage leads
• heads of subject or subject leads

Test and assessment review groups are made up of:

• subject specialists
• local authority subject leads or advisors
• multi-academy trust subject leads or advisors
• educational consultants
• experienced senior teachers, deputy headteachers or headteachers
• advanced skills teachers or assessment leads
• specialist leaders of education
• academics specialising in a relevant area of education or subject discipline
• initial teacher training providers

How to apply

The survey will be open periodically and should take you less than 5 minutes to complete.

What happens next

Please note that submitting your details does not guarantee a place, and you may not hear back from us for a while.

We regularly review the full list of submissions and make selections throughout the year to ensure our panels are diverse and cover all the required areas of expertise. This means that we may contact candidates with opportunities very soon, or at any time within 5 years of their application.

If you are selected, we will:

• send you a formal invitation to attend a panel meeting
• provide you with clear guidance about the panels purpose, scope and desired outcomes
• ask you to sign a confidentiality agreement to protect sensitive information

If you are unable to participate in a specific review, you will remain on our database for potential future opportunities we will securely store your details for 5 years. However, you can ask us to change or remove your details at any time.

You can find more information about how we use your personal data in the Department for Educationspersonal information charter.

3. The assessment review process

The review process involves independent quality assurance of assessment materials. It is critical to the validity evidence that supports the assessments.

Questions and mark schemes are reviewed throughout the development process in a series of external panels to ensure they assess the content domain of the assessment appropriately.

Initial reviews take place before questions are trialled in schools, to review and comment on their suitability, identify possible issues and suggest improvements. A final review takes place at the end of the development process, to review the suitability of the assessment.

Teacher panel

The teacher panel gives feedback on assessment materials. We ask panellists to comment on:

• how the questions reflect current classroom practice
• whether the materials are of appropriate difficulty for the age group and attainment range
• whether the materials are a suitable assessment of the content domain of the assessment
• the format, design and layout of questions
• any improvements that would enable a fairer assessment

The teacher panel gets access to the assessment materials on the day of the meeting, to reflect the experience of opening the materials in school on the day the assessment is first administered.

Test and assessment review groups

The test and assessment review groups are designed primarily to gather feedback on:

• the technical accuracy of the content
• whether the content domain references are accurate
• the complexity of the concepts being assessed
• the ability of the questions to be marked consistently

Each group gets access to the assessment materials a week before the meeting, to complete an advance review of the questions.

4. Inclusion reviews

Inclusion reviews are conducted to assess the accessibility of assessments. They are carried out by experienced diversity specialists and experts in the education of pupils with special educational needs and English as an additional language.

We procure these specialists through a Department for Education (DfE) framework. If you are interested in one of these roles, you can look out for upcoming opportunities on Contracts Finder and sign up for ourassessment updatesto ensure you receive the latest information.

5. Further information

If you have any questions about becoming an expert review panellist, please contactSTA.expert@education.gov.uk.