A majority of councils have not been collecting the standardised test and assessment data generated by schools under their control, the Sunday Herald can reveal.

In most cases, the results stay at school level and are not used by local authorities to help close the attainment gap.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon last year announced plans to introduce country-wide standardised assessments at P1, P4, P7 and S3 levels.

The policy, a key part of the National Improvement Framework (NIF), is aimed at measuring improvement and improving the grades of pupils from poorer backgrounds.

As the changes were being developed, the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS), the country’s largest teaching trade union, surveyed their local associations about councils’ current policies.

When it came to primary schools, according to the snapshot, some 23 out of the 24 councils already used a form of standardised assessment or tests in either all or some of their primaries.

However, the survey, which is believed to have been carried out last year, also revealed no consistency in how the data is used.

In 18 councils – 78% of the sample size – the data produced in primaries “remains at school level”.

Only four local authorities used the data to measure and compare the performance of schools within their area.

According to the survey, the same pattern emerged for secondary schools.

When it came to secondary schools, of the 21 responses, 19 councils – 91% of the sample - use standardised assessments or tests in some or all of their secondaries.

In thirteen of the 21 local authorities, the data “remains with the school.” Only three areas used the figures at both a school and local authority level.

The survey concluded: “In most local authorities, data is held at school level to inform assessment judgments, target setting, planning etc. Only a minority of local authorities currently collect standardised test/assessment data.”

The move towards uniform data collection at a council and national level, the survey added, would be a “significant development”.

As part of its reform agenda, the Scottish Government wants test data assessed at a level higher than the school so that performance can be measured and resources targeted effectively.

Ministers also want to change the way education is delivered by reducing the role of councils in schools.

New educational regions will likely be introduced and additional resources will be given to headteachers, not councils.

Fife Council has collected standardised assessment data for 12 years. Craig Munro, the local authority’s Executive Director of Education and Children’s Services, said: "We collect, analyse and use this data very carefully. We have never published standardised assessment information as all the evidence tells us that this would make for simplistic league tables.”

The NIF is also clear that better use of data is central to the reform agenda: “We will collect nationally, and at local authority level, data on the achievement of Curriculum for Excellence levels for literacy and numeracy at the end of P1, P4, P7 and S3.

“This will be based on teacher judgement – informed by standardised assessment – and will tell us how children and young people are progressing with their learning.”

However Larry Flanagan, the general secretary of the EIS, said: “Some of the assessments that have been used are essentially diagnostic, focused on a particular skills range. They would be designed for teacher use at a classroom level.

“It wouldn’t make much sense beyond the classroom, unless you had a genuinely comprehensive system where everybody is doing the same thing. If teachers are allowed to use them whenever they feel it is appropriate for individual children, you are not really creating a robust dataset.”

Scottish Conservative shadow education secretary Liz Smith said: “As things stand just now, the assessment in primary schools is too complex and too variable in terms of its quality. That is why we need standardised assessment which not only provides detailed analysis on each child but provides information about which schools are doing well and which are needing greater help.”

A spokesman for COSLA, the umbrella group for councils, said: “This is not an accurate picture of actual practice – and this looks like a misinterpretation of the survey. We know that many local authorities not only hold the data but indeed use it well e.g. feeding the data into improvement exercises within council areas and across Scotland to target specific improvement activity, as parents, teachers and young people would expect.

“Central staff, such as quality improvement officers, work alongside headteachers providing support and challenge. In their visits to schools they too will look at the range of data which schools are using to assess children along with other evidence including direct observation of learning. This helps them form a view of the progress of a school and then support can be targeted at authority level.”

A Scottish Government spokesman said: “The new national standardised assessments will replace the existing assessments already used in most schools in Scotland. The Scottish Government will have the ability to receive a full dataset of the results of the assessments at pupil level for each school year. Local authorities will also have access to this data and to the full range of information and evidence that will be gathered through the NIF."