England: Responses to official review of early years assessment
Posted: Sat Jun 24, 2017 6:06 pm
In the Times Educational Supplement:
https://www.tes.com/news/school-news/br ... tion-stageCampaign group calls for overhaul of reading in the early years foundation stage
Martin George
23rd June 2017
Parents and Teachers for Excellence wants EYFS to support the phonics check
A group campaigning for a knowledge-led curriculum has claimed the early years reading assessment is “simply not working”.
In its response to the government’s consultation on primary assessment, the Parents and Teachers for Excellence (PTE) group called for a review of how the early years foundation stage (EYFS) framework covers literacy and reading.
The organisation looked at the proportion of children in reception achieving the EYFS expected standard in reading in every local authority in England, based on teacher assessments.
It then compared this with the proportion reaching the expected standard in the phonics check the following year.
For each of the three sets of data it analysed, PTE’s incoming director Mark Lehain said there was “zero correlation”, which he said suggested the reading element of the EYFS framework was not preparing children well enough to read at school.
In its submission to the DfE consultation, which closed yesterday, it said its data “clearly shows that the reading portion of the test is simply not working” and “must not be evaluating children’s reading ability accurately”.
PTE called for the EYFS to be re-evaluated to support the phonics check, and to rely less on “unreliable” teacher assessments.