Update page for the Year One Phonics Screening Check - IFERI recommends global use of the phonics check

[Dick Schutz]

The Telegraph article is more an indictment of the researchers, the BERA, and the newspaper than it is of the Screening Check. The paper had yet to be delivered at the BERA convention at the time the newspaper article was published, and it is still not publicly accessible.

The newspaper article makes little sense. The article mis-states the purpose of the Screening Check: The phonics screening check is designed to confirm whether pupils have learnt phonic decoding to an appropriate standard. It will identify pupils who need extra help to improve their decoding skills. The Check actually "does what it says on the tin."

The researchers are quoted as criticizing the Check for not assessing enough of the Alphabetic Code correspondences and then advocating that children be taught fewer of the Correspondences. Solity has long advocated this, but his scheme and instructional programme have proven faulty in trials.

The "long tail" of children who fail to pass the Check, even at the end of Yr 2, certainly warrants investigation, but the newspaper article is blissfully ignorant that the tail is there.

[Debbie_Hepplewhite]

More criticism of the Year One Phonics Check hits the news. I've started a new thread for this but also cross-referenced to this thread. See here:

http://www.iferi.org/iferi_forum/viewto ... 1173#p1173

Phonics check needs rethink after data shows ‘something dodgy’

Freddie Whittaker

Oct 7, 2016