The Arts in Schools - Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation

144 The need For all these reasons we believe it is important to encourageforthe search for alternatives. Parents, teachers and employersalternatives need to know about the individual skills, interests andpersonal qualities of their children, students, or potentialemployees. Potential for employment does not stop atacademic potential after all. In all cases it is surely moreuseful to an employer to be presented with some kind ofpersonal profile clearly indicating the positive achievements ofa potential employee at different levels and in different sortsof work, than it is to know that the applicant is graded at the57th percentile or obtained a CSE grade 5, both of which canvary in significance from year to year. So far as the arts areconcerned these arguments suggest the need for some sort ofsummative assessment which clarifies the contribution of thearts to pupils' overall development and which indicatesattainment in their work. This is the real task, not that ofdevising examinations per se. Among various alternatives weturn first to profile reporting.145 Profile Profile reporting has been in use in some schools and authorireportingties for some time and a number of examination boards areshowing interest in its future development. The intentionis to provide more detailed and descriptive accounts ofpupils' work and experience at school and of their personalqualities. Profiles may be used in addition to, or instead of,other forms of assessment. There are problems in providingfor written profiles on a large scale. Three main difficultiesare: first, consistency of reports — ensuring some form ofcomparability; second, the possible discouragement of thosewhose reports are unfavourable; third, the possibility ofcontroversy between parents and teachers. Moreover, it is inprecisely those areas where profiles might be of most value —in describing personal and social qualities — that there ismost room for controversy. (SCRE, 1977)146 RPA and Profiles may be compiled wholly by teachers, by teachersRPE and pupils or wholly by pupils, as for example with theRecord of Pupil Achievement (see Swales, 1979) and theRecord of Pupil Experience (Stansbury). These provideframeworks within which pupils themselves can keep apersonal record of interests, aptitudes and abilities. Allaspects of the profiles are controlled by pupils, includingentries in the files. These schemes seem to have positiveeffects on pupil motivation and the records themselves areoften more penetrating and illuminating of personal qualitiesthan those done by teachers.Again there are difficulties. Costs of materials are high andit is often hard for teachers to find ways of giving pupils89