Experts say primary students should be tested every eight weeks

Primary school children should be taught in ability groups and tested every eight weeks to stop pupils from poor homes falling behind, research recommended today.
And the law limiting infant class sizes to 30 pupils should be scrapped to allow more "flexible" lessons, the Social Market Foundation (SMF) study said.
The think-tank warned that many children from poor homes lose ground at primary school, despite Government schemes to improve nursery education.
The report said schools must focus on making sure these pupils master basic reading and writing, otherwise they will find it "impossible" to study other subjects.
SMF director Ann Rossiter said: "Some primary schools are ensuring that disadvantaged children keep up with their peers, against the odds.
"But more needs to be done to support those schools and apply the lessons they are learning across the country."
The report recommended:
• An intensive focus on teaching literacy, with short bursts of one-to-one lessons from the age of five;
• Grouping children by ability in literacy classes with tests every eight weeks to measure progress;
• Extending the daily literacy hour to 90 minutes;
• A more flexible approach to class sizes. The SMF report backed Tony Blair's flagship Sure Start pre-school education policy.
But problems in primary schools were undermining the progress which children from disadvantaged homes make at nursery.
The report's author, Claudia Wood, said: "Pre-school programmes like Sure Start are hugely important in giving disadvantaged children the right start in life.
"However, for some children an early boost just isn't enough.
"The Government must look hard at its primary provision to ensure it offers adequate follow-up support for vulnerable children."
The study looked at the work of the Kobi Nazrul Primary School in Tower Hamlets, east London, where 95 per cent of the children do not speak English as their first language.
The school introduced a scheme for intensive literacy classes devised in the United States called Success for All.
Children at Kobi Nazrul are placed into ability sets for their literacy lessons, which last 90 minutes, and sit informal tests every half term.
Despite teaching so many pupils who do not speak English as their first language, the school has outstripped regional and national averages in test results.
Last year, 85 per cent of pupils reached the ability level expected of their age group in English and maths at the school.
The SMF report said the most effective form of setting by academic ability was arranging children into different groups within larger classes.
Schools should reassess children's abilities and move them from one group to another depending on their progress, the report suggested.
This would help reduce the "stigma