Chris Whetton

How do season of birth and length of schooling affect children's attainment at key stage 1?

Summary A review of previous studies identifies three main hypotheses to explain the general finding that summer‐born children perform less well than their autumn‐born classmates. This article reports the findings of an analysis of the 1991 National Curriculum Assessment data in relation to season of birth. Two hypotheses are explored in an analysis of the results obtained by a sample of around 4,000 six‐ and seven‐year‐olds in maths, science and English. The analysis revealed that there were significant differences between children of different age‐related groups in all three subjects. Although this was partially the result of differences in the age of the children when tested, other factors were found to be related to the achievement of these groups. The findings indicate that both age on starting school and length of schooling are important factors. Children who started school close to the age of four did less well than others. For older children, length of schooling appeared to relate positively to ac...

A Brief History of a Testing Time: National Curriculum Assessment in England 1989-2008.

Background: National curriculum assessment (NCA) in England has been in place for nearly 20 years. It has its origins in a political desire to regulate education, holding schools accountable. However, its form and nature also reflect educational and curriculum concerns and technical assessment issues. Purpose: The aim of the article is to provide a narrative account of the development and changes in NCA in England from its initiation to 2008 and to explain the reasons for these. Sources of evidence: The sources quoted are in the public domain, but in addition to academic articles, include political biographies and published official papers. Main argument and conclusions: NCA in England has evolved over 20 years, from an attempt at a criterion-referenced system based on tasks marked by the childrens own teachers through to an externally marked examination system. This change reflects the political purposes of the system for accountability, and the pressure associated with this has led to growing criticism of the effects on children and their education. Nonetheless, the results provided are widely used by the public and government, and the reasons for the survival of the system lie in both its utility and the difficulty of identifying a new system which is necessarily an improvement for all the stakeholders involved.

Fallback in attainment on transfer at age 11: evidence from the Summer Literacy Schools evaluation

Summary Summer Literacy Schools were introduced as a pilot scheme by the Government in the summer of 1997 in an attempt to improve childrens literacy skills at the age of 11, the time of transfer from primary to secondary education. The initiative was evaluated by collecting the pupils’ results from the national test taken in May and comparing these with results of a similar test administered in September. Results for a control group who had not attended summer schools were also analysed. The analysis revealed that the scores of both groups declined significantly between the pre‐test and the post‐test, and no significant difference in the extent of the decline was found between the summer school pupils and the control group. Further research is needed on the possibility that the transition from primary to secondary school is associated generally with a significant decline in attainment.

The Effectiveness of Systems for Appealing against Marking Error.

One way to manage marking error, in a large‐scale educational testing context, is to establish a mechanism through which appeals can be lodged. While, at one level, this seems to offer a straightforward technical solution to the problem of marking error, it can also result in unintended consequences, with political, social or educational ramifications. It is therefore important to monitor the operation of any appeal system, to determine how effectively it meets its objectives. The present paper was based on an evaluation of the system which operates for National Curriculum testing in England. Four underlying objectives were identified: the measurement objective, the political objective, the educational objective and the psychological objective. Although there is reason to believe that such goals can be achieved through appeal systems, there are major threats to achieving them, many of which appear to be inevitable. These threats are examined within the paper and implications for policy and practice are explored.

National curriculum assessment in England: how well has it worked? Perspectives from the UK, Europe and beyond

After a lively debate at the National Union of Teachers annual conference in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, members voted unanimously in favour of a boycott. John Whearty, a secondary school teacher f...

Measuring standards in primary English: the validity of PIRLS—a response to Mary Hilton

Hilton (2006) criticises the PIRLS (Progress in International Reading Literacy Study) tests and the survey conduct, raising questions about the validity of international surveys of reading. Her criticisms fall into four broad areas: cultural validity, methodological issues, construct validity and the survey in England. However, her criticisms are shown to be mistaken. Her claim of forced unidimensionality in the tests is not supported by statistical analyses and her claims of cultural strangeness are contradicted by the involvement of all the countries involved. She is concerned about linguistic diversity but this is actually reflected in the ways countries organise their surveys. Finally, Hilton suggests that the English sample was biased, but fails to recognise the stringent sampling requirements or the monitoring roles of external assessors and the sampling referee. A careful study of the evidence concerning PIRLS shows that it is actually a fair and robust measure of reading attainment in different co...

An investigation of hierarchical relationships in children’s literacy attainments at baseline

This paper describes one element of the research basis for the Baseline Assessment Scales now published for optional use in baseline schemes nationally (SCAA, 1997a). The aim in developing these scales was to provide a range of criteria that would allow almost all children to show some attainment, whilst also acknowledging the attainments of the most able. For this purpose, four-point scales were required. The first point would be attainable by over 80 per cent of children in their first term of school, and the fourth by only 20 per cent or fewer, with two intermediate points. Four such scales were trialled for reading, and one for writing. As part of the trial analysis, an investigation was undertaken into the hierarchies amongst the items on each scale – that is, to what extent was it possible for a child to attain a more difficult item, whilst failing an easier item on the same scale? A ‘coefficient of dependency’ was calculated for each pair of items on each scale. The percentages of children achieving each item are reported, and the strength of the hierarchies amongst them. This provides some evidence as to the interrelationships between children’s literacy attainments at the start of school.

SCAA, baseline assessment and value added: a response to Peter Tymms

Summary The authors have previously reported a study examining both age and length of school as factors affecting attainment levels. Tymms (1996a) has criticized this result on a number of grounds. These are shown to be substantially incorrect and not to invalidate the original findings. Length of schooling and appropriate provision are both important in ensuring high standards of achievement.

What determines the Range of Reading Attainment in a Country

The Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (Pirls), which reported in April 2003, is the largest and most rigorous study ever undertaken of young children’s reading skills. The study was conducted under the auspices of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (Iea), the organisation also responsible for the international surveys of achievement in mathematics and science (Timss). It involved 150,000 children aged 9-10 years old in 35 countries (listed in Table 1) and is described fully in Mullis et al (2003a). The analysis of the data for England from which the present paper arises is presented in Twist et al (2003).

Issues in the Evaluation of Standard Assessment Tasks and the Reliability of National Curriculum Assessment

Important issues in the reliability of National Curriculum assessment were raised by an earlier paper by Davies & Brember, but unfortunately not supported by a valid analysis of the data they collected from five primary schools in 1991. This paper aims to clarify some of those issues and to point out the lack of comparability between the two measures which were compared. Suggestions for more valid analysis are given.