Assessment and Monitoring in the Primary Years

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Assessment and Monitoring in the Primary Years

Christine.Merrell@cem.dur.ac.uk

www.cemcentre.org

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CEM’s Monitoring Systems

Start to End of NurseryASPECTS

Start to End of Reception

PIPS Baseline Assessment

Year 1 – Year 6PIPS

Or InCAS

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Designing a baseline assessmentfor young children

• For value-added purposes, need items that are good indicators of later attainment

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Correlation = 0

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Correlation = 1

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Correlation = 0.7

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Child development and predicting later attainment

• Speech & Language– Before 6 months vowels are predominant– After 6 months use of consonants– 8 months: Babbling– 1 year: 6 words recognised by mother– 18 months: Approx. 50 words understood by mother– 2 years: Mother understands language– 3 years: Other adults understand language

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Reading

When beginning to read, children need different types of knowledge:

• Global and cultural awareness

• Vocabulary and basic understanding of language

• Conventions of print

• Phonological awareness

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Mathematics

• Babies born with numerosity of small quantities– Before acquisition of language– Subitising

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Early Arithmetic

Subitising

Learning to count

Learning simple arithmetic

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What would you include in a baseline assessment?

• Drawing• Marshmallows• Language• Maths• Phonological

awareness• PSED• Motor skills

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ASPECTS

• Baseline Assessment for Foundation Stage – Early Language and Maths– PSED– Motor Development

• Test/retest reliability for reading and maths = 0.82

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ASPECTS

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ASPECTS ~ Motor Development

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PIPS On-entry Baseline& Follow-up

• Assesses – Early reading and vocabulary– Phonological Awareness– Early maths– Personal, social and emotional development– Short-term memory– Attitudes (End of Year only)– Behaviour (End of Year only)

• Test/retest reliability for reading and maths = 0.98

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PIPS Baseline ~ PSED• Comfortable• Independence• Confidence• Concentration (Teacher and Self Directed)• Actions • Relationships (To peers and to adults)• Rules• Cultural awareness• Communication

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PIPS Baseline ~ PSED

  PSEDReading age 4 0.50Mathematics age 4 0.49Reading age 5 0.40Mathematics age 5 0.39Reading age 7 0.37Mathematics age 7 0.41

Correlations

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PIPS Baseline ~ PSED

• Multi-level Models–After controlling for sex and earlier

attainment, PSED was still a significant factor in explaining the difference between pupils’ reading and maths attainment at Age 7

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Monitoring the Progress of Older Children: The Importance of Developed Ability

Vocabulary Acquisition and Non-verbal Ability

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In the Reception Year we have a lot of information from the PIPS BLA

As children get older, we might not have good data on their prior achievement and developed ability

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If we don’t have comprehensive information about Ian’s vocabulary and non-verbal ability

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Are we limited in the Interpretation of his

performance against the curriculum?

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If we take a combination of picture vocabulary and non-

verbal ability, we gain a picture of Ian’s ‘Developed Ability’

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This data might suggestthat Ian is an able little

boy who is under-performing

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Ian might be able to do better in maths but without the added dimension of Developed Ability (Vocabulary and Non-verbal Ability), it would be

difficult to identify this

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Lord Bew Review of KS2 Testing:“We believe the potential of computer-administered testing is enormous, but it needs to be approached with caution. We believe it should be explored further and piloted with a view to exploring the possibility of introducing it in the long term. We recommend the same approach should be taken with computer adaptive testing, given the advantages associated with pupils being able to sit their own personalised test according to their level of attainment.”

Computer-adaptive Assessment

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Traditional approach

Low Average High

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Adaptive approach

Low Average High

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InCAS

• InCAS– Administer at any time of year– CD (installed on school network)– Group assessment– Feedback

• Within 24 hours

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• Picture Vocabulary• Non-verbal ability• Attitudes• Word recognition• Word decoding• Text comprehension• Spelling• Mental arithmetic• General maths

Content

Developed Ability

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Beginning to Read

Children need different types of knowledge:

• Global and cultural awareness

• Vocabulary and basic understanding of language

• Conventions of print

• Phonological awareness

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Reading – an Interactive Compensatory Process

Word recognition/decoding Comprehension

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Problems with Literacy Acquisition

Dyslexia

Found across the whole intelligence range

Continuum of severity

3 males : 1 female

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Types of Difficulties

Phonological deficit

Visual memory

Speed of processing

These can overlap

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Impact of Spelling Difficulties

Spelling problems

Slow writing & poor quality

Poor note taking and exam performance

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Areas of Maths

• Mental arithmetic

• General maths– Number (informal, verbal, counting, place-value)– Number (formal, algebra)– Measures, shape and space– Handling data

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Attitudes

• Generally positive but decline with age

• More positive towards reading than maths

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Thank You!