ACME statement on the reception baseline assessment
10 February 2015
Six providers of the reception baseline assessment have been
approved by the Department for Education.
By the end of April, government‑funded schools that wish to use
the assessment measure from September must choose from: the Centre for Evaluation and Monitoring
(CEM), Durham University; Early Excellence; GL assessment; Hodder Education; the National Foundation for
Educational Research (NFER); and Speech Link.
In 2022, the government will then use whichever shows the most
progress the reception baseline to key stage 2 results or the key
stage 1 to key stage 2 results.
Those schools that choose not to use the baseline assessment
will be held to account by their pupils' attainment at the end of
key stage 2 from 2023.
ACME has questioned the
usefulness of a baseline assessment in mathematics, whether at Key
Stage 1 or reception.
The Committee has highlighted issues
with new baseline assessments for reception, such as:
- Very young children will be assessed but scores will not take
account of whether children are born in the summer.
- Children will have varied pre-school backgrounds, in terms of
cultures, experience of settings and knowledge of English.
- Schools will have an undesirable incentive to depress scores in
order to increase measured progress, especially if this means
attaining extra funding.
- What is considered key or informative in testing may also vary
across schools.
For accountability, it would be adequate to compare the outcomes
of primary schools with similar intakes of children. This would be
the most cost-effective and arguably the fairest system for
schools.
There are issues around over testing children. Giving children
mathematics scores which stay with them throughout their primary
schooling has the potential to create fixed mindsets about
mathematics ability for teachers, children and parents, rather than
fostering high expectations and positive attitudes
[1].
ACME advises
that to ensure that the future system is fair and transparent,
schools should be advised that commercially produced baseline
assessment are optional. They should be advised that there is a
choice between reception baseline assessments for primary schools,
a Key Stage 1 baseline for junior schools and no baseline at all
for schools who opt out. Baseline assessment must also be uncoupled
from school funding arrangements.
Nick Gibb responded to
this and another letter, detailing
that the points raised by ACME had been noted and would be passed
on to officials in the Department for Education working on
mathematics reforms.
The ATM and MA have also
highlighted the issues with baseline assessments. David Laws
responded to this letter.