1. 1 Assessment and Monitoring in the Primary Years Christine.Merrell@cem.dur.ac.uk www.cemcentre.org

2. CEM’s Monitoring Systems Start to End of Nursery ASPECTS Start to End of Reception PIPS Baseline Assessment Year 1 – Year 6 PIPS Or InCAS 2

3. 3 Designing a baseline assessment for young children For value-added purposes, need items that are good indicators of later attainment

4. 4 Correlation = 0

5. 5 Correlation = 1

6. 6 Correlation = 0.7

7. 7 Child development and predicting later attainment Speech & Language –B–Before 6 months vowels are predominant –A–After 6 months use of consonants –8–8 months: Babbling –1–1 year: 6 words recognised by mother –1–18 months: Approx. 50 words understood by mother –2–2 years: Mother understands language –3–3 years: Other adults understand language

8. 8 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

9. 9 Mathematics Babies born with numerosity of small quantities –Before acquisition of language –Subitising

10. 10 Early Arithmetic Subitising Learning to count Learning simple arithmetic

11. 11 What would you include in a baseline assessment? Drawing Marshmallows Language Maths Phonological awareness PSED Motor skills

12. 12 ASPECTS Baseline Assessment for Foundation Stage –Early Language and Maths –PSED –Motor Development Test/retest reliability for reading and maths = 0.82

13. 13 ASPECTS

14. 14 ASPECTS ~ Motor Development

15. 15 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

16. PIPS Baseline ~ PSED Comfortable Independence Confidence Concentration (Teacher and Self Directed) Actions Relationships (To peers and to adults) Rules Cultural awareness Communication 16

17. PIPS Baseline ~ PSED PSED Reading age 40.50 Mathematics age 40.49 Reading age 50.40 Mathematics age 50.39 Reading age 70.37 Mathematics age 70.41 17 Correlations

18. 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 18

19. 19 Monitoring the Progress of Older Children: The Importance of Developed Ability Vocabulary Acquisition and Non-verbal Ability

20. 20 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

21. 21 If we don’t have comprehensive information about Ian’s vocabulary and non-verbal ability

22. 22 Are we limited in the Interpretation of his performance against the curriculum?

23. 23 If we take a combination of picture vocabulary and non- verbal ability, we gain a picture of Ian’s ‘Developed Ability’

24. 24 This data might suggest that Ian is an able little boy who is under- performing

25. 25 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

26. 26 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

27. 27 Traditional approach LowAverageHigh

28. 28 Adaptive approach LowAverageHigh

29. 29 InCAS –Administer at any time of year –CD (installed on school network) –Group assessment –Feedback Within 24 hours

30. 30 Picture Vocabulary Non-verbal ability Attitudes Word recognition Word decoding Text comprehension Spelling Mental arithmetic General maths Content Developed Ability

31. 31 Beginning to Read Children need different types of knowledge: Global and cultural awareness Vocabulary and basic understanding of language Conventions of print Phonological awareness

32. 32 Reading – an Interactive Compensatory Process Word recognition/decoding Comprehension

33. 33 Problems with Literacy Acquisition Dyslexia Found across the whole intelligence range Continuum of severity 3 males : 1 female

34. 34 Types of Difficulties Phonological deficit Visual memory Speed of processing These can overlap

35. 35 Impact of Spelling Difficulties Spelling problems Slow writing & poor quality Poor note taking and exam performance

36. 36 Areas of Maths Mental arithmetic General maths –Number (informal, verbal, counting, place-value) –Number (formal, algebra) –Measures, shape and space –Handling data

37. 37 Attitudes Generally positive but decline with age More positive towards reading than maths

38. 38 Thank You!