The test will now be more like the Sats children are used to

The tests, being piloted, were meant to show pupils "working securely within" various national curriculum levels.

They are now being brought into line with the usual Sats pupils take. In those, they simply have to reach a given level or "threshold".

Schools have now been sent the findings from December's pilot tests, delayed as officials checked "unusual" results.

The Department for Children, Schools and Families stresses that these are pilot tests and denies that is has "lowered standards".

Their whole purpose was to evaluate new ways of assessing children, putting an emphasis on making progress, as part of a series of measures including more one-to-one tuition, a spokeswoman said.

'Technical'

She added that the decision to change the whole basis of the new tests, known as single level tests, had been taken in early December in consultation with the National Assessment Agency, which has devised the tests.

Because it takes time to develop test materials, the new papers will not be available until the next round of pilots in June.

The department described this as "a technical change". The practical effect is to lower the marks a pupil will need to pass.

December's tests went ahead as planned on the old basis, and were taken by about 40,000 children, spread across Years 3 to 9. Schools had expected the results in January.

Standards

Although they have been sent to the 411 or so schools involved they are not being published yet.

The department said they would be revealed in the final evaluation of the whole Making Good Progress pilot programme.

It had adjusted the single level tests to be consistent with the National Curriculum test model.

"This will allow performance standards to be tracked over time between the two testing systems and better compared, which will help us work out whether the new single level test, along with the other measures in the pilot, is helping children to make faster progress.

"The June tests will be more familiar to teachers and will measure the same standard as the National Curriculum tests.

"This is a standard that is better understood by teachers and will allow more continuity - a Level 4 or 5 achieved in a single level test will mean the same to a pupil or a teacher as it does if achieved in the current Key Stage tests."