All children in P1, P4, P7 and S3 will sit the online reading, writing and numeracy assessments, which will be developed by ACER International UK, a branch of the Australian Council for Educational Research, a non-profit organisation. However, no revision will be necessary and there will be no pass or fail, Mr Swinney said.
The Scottish government has published leaflets on the tests for teachers and parents, with a maximum time limit of 50 minutes for each test and questions getting easier if a pupil is struggling and harder if they are doing well.
The tests will be marked automatically online, with immediate feedback for teachers. The leaflet states: “We do not expect the majority of children to require the full 50 minutes.”
Teachers and schools themselves will decide when in the academic year the tests are taken.
Mr Swinney said: “Teachers are best placed to make judgements about how children are doing in school and draw on a wide range of information – from both formal and informal assessments – to help them form a view.”
The new national standardised assessments should replace the various standardised assessments local authorities currently buy in and will be designed to be as straightforward as possible for teachers and children alike, he said.
“These are not high-stakes tests: there will be no ‘pass or fail’ and no additional workload for children or teachers. Instead, the online system being developed on our behalf by international experts the Australian Council for Educational Research will be intuitive to use, take into account the abilities of individual children and quickly and automatically generate individual feedback for teachers.”
They would be an important tool for teachers, who will have an additional source of nationally consistent evidence about how well pupils are progressing, Mr Swinney added.
“They will be able to draw on this alongside other assessment information to help inform their professional judgement, which is how we evaluate whether children have achieved the relevant Curriculum for Excellence levels for their stage.”
However, opposition parties have expressed concerns that standardised assessments will lead to a return of school league tables.
Tavish Scott, Scottish Liberal Democrats education spokesman, said: “2017 will see the reintroduction of school-by-school comparisons. School league tables will be published. This rigid system contrasts with the ethos of Curriculum for Excellence.
“Teaching to the test seems inevitable and it will not help schools and teachers already burdened with bureaucracy, increased class sizes and cuts to education budgets.”
SNP ministers have pressed ahead with this approach despite the pleas of teachers, unions and parents, Mr Scott said.