New Assessment Arrangements or Not?

With a new National Curriculum comes new assessment arrangements. The present arrangement of 8 levels against which pupils achievement is compared forms the basis of the present arrangements. The government claims that these create a glass ceiling, but yet the design of the level system avoids this. When a pupil achieves a level the teacher is already preparing to move them to the next level. Thus we could have a child working twards level 4 in Year 4 because they have achieved level 3. This surely can only be percieved as a glass celieng by those who don't understand it? The TGAT team who devised the levels were very well aware of this possibility. Appointed by the then Conservative government I suspect they were much better qualified than some of those extolling the virtues of  the proposal. So the proposal to avoid a glass ceiling, is to introduce age ralated targets. Did I mis read that? Would these be sets of educational objectives or targets linked to a particular age range? This appears to be the plan. So a Year 4 pupil would work towards the targets, perhaps achieve them in May and then....  ooops  they've hit a ceiling.  Or would the child move to a Year 5 class? this system is used in parts of north America and other contries. Alternatively the teacher could be asked to teach towards the Year 5 targets? very sensible and frankly not so different to the system of levels we have now so ....   ....we spend a lot of money to change a system from one we have to one we have?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2011/oct/03/england-curriculum-review-debate-controversy