Baseline Testing – Myths and
Misconceptions
1. There’s nothing special about baseline: testing is part of teaching. Wrong!
-
Even the Department for Education (DfE) acknowledges that baseline testing is nothing to
do with learning or teaching, it is to ‘support the accountability framework and help
assess school effectiveness’.1
-
Assessment of children’s strength and areas for development is something that teachers
do all the time. It requires professional judgement and expertise, and a greater
appreciation of the child than a binary yes/ no answer can give. The baseline tests are
designed to give binary answers and single scores, rather than an understanding of the
whole child.
-
Even if children are not removed from the classroom for the test (and in many cases they
will be), the time spent doing the baseline test is time not spent doing other things. In a
child’s first few weeks in school teachers spend time settling them in to a new
environment with new people and new routines. For some children this may be their first
experience of schooling and it can be a daunting and stressful time when they need to
learn to trust their teacher and grow in confidence as a learner, not to be tested and
possibly labelled as failing.
2. Baseline testing focuses on a ‘pre-determined content domain’, in which
communication skills are central. A focus on literacy and numeracy is vital if children
are to be prepared for the National Curriculum. Wrong!
-
Evidence shows that superior learning and motivation arises from playful, as opposed to
instructional, approaches to learning in children. Play supports children’s early
development of symbolic representational skills, including those of literacy, more
powerfully than direct instruction.2 Children are better prepared for the demands of the
National Curriculum and the acquisition of skills such as literacy through a play based
approach to learning, rather than formal teaching or testing of these skills.
-
Studies have compared groups of children in New Zealand who started formal literacy
lessons at ages 5 and 7. Their results show that the early introduction of formal learning
approaches to literacy does not improve children’s reading development, and may be
damaging. By the age of 11 there was no difference in reading ability level between the
two groups, but the children who started at 5 developed less positive attitudes to
reading, and showed poorer text comprehension than those children who had started
later.3
1
Department for Education ‘Reception Baseline: Criteria for Potential Assessments’ (2014) pg. 1
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/415142/Baseline_criteria.pdf
2
David Whitebread, School Starting Age: The Evidence, University of Cambridge
http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/discussion/school-starting-age-the-evidence#sthash.tfR5dKv3.dpuf
3
David Whitebread, School Stating Age: The Evidence, University of Cambridge
3. This is just a cohort measure; no individual child would be identified by test results.
Wrong!
-
As the DfE have stated, baseline testing is about holding teachers and schools to account.
Individual children’s scores will be known to the companies running the tests,4 5 6 and will
be available to schools. Individual test scores can easily be used for the purposes of
performance related pay for teachers throughout a school.
-
Parents will want to know how their child has performed. If the school know an individual
child’s score then the parent will want to know it too. Some companies will produce
reports that are designed to be given to parents.7 This will result in stress and anxiety for
some parents, and ‘prepping’ and ‘coaching’ of children to ensure that their child does
not ‘fail’.
4. The tests will be a good predictor of what a child should achieve at the end of Key
Stage Two from their starting point so schools can show the value they add. Wrong!
-
The majority of children do not make linear progression in their learning. 45% of children
will not follow a linear model of progression between the end of Key Stage One (KS 1)
and the end of Key Stage Two (KS 2).8 At KS 2, they will either under or over perform
based on their predicted results from tests at the end of KS 1. Baseline assessment is
attempting to make predictions over a much longer period in a child’s development than
the end of KS 1 to the end of KS 2.
-
Only 9% of pupils will follow a linear line of progression from KS 2 to Key Stage Four
(GCSEs).9 This shows how the accuracy of these predictions falls dramatically when
looking at longer timescales, as baseline testing claims to be able to do.
-
If children’s progression is not predictable, then the argument that ‘progress measures’
can identify a ‘school effect’ on learning is seriously undermined.
5. Early Excellence is the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) assessment by another
name – there’s no reason not to support it. Wrong!
-
4
The Early Excellence baseline test, like all the baseline tests, measures children on a
single scale, and scores children based on binary decisions.10 This is not progressive and
limits what a teacher can record about a child’s level of understanding and development.
GL Assessment Reception Baseline FAQ Question 8- Sharing information with parents http://www.glassessment.co.uk/products/reception-baseline-assessment/reception-baseline-faqs#parents
5 CEM, Baseline Assessment Reporting and Feedback http://www.cem.org/reporting-feedback
6 Early Excellence Baseline Assessment FAQ Question 12- Tracking progress
http://www.earlyexcellence.com/baseline_faqs.html#twelve
7 GL Assessment Reception Baseline FAQ Question 8- Sharing information with parents http://www.glassessment.co.uk/products/reception-baseline-assessment/reception-baseline-faqs#parents
8 Education Data Lab ‘Seven things you might not know about our schools’ pg. 11
http://www.educationdatalab.org.uk/getattachment/Blog/March-2015/Seven-things-you-might-not-know-about-ourschools/EduDataLab-7things.pdf.aspx
9 Education Data Lab ‘Seven things you might not know about our schools’ pg. 11
10 Department for Education ‘Reception Baseline: Criteria for Potential Assessments’ (2014) pg. 2
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/415142/Baseline_criteria.pdf
-
The Early Excellence baseline test, like all the baseline tests, is not age standardised.11 A
child born in August will be 25% younger than their September born classmate. These
children are almost certain to fare poorly against older classmates. This will lead to
unnecessary stress for parents and families, and the possibility of unwarranted labelling
of children over diagnosis of SEN. The needs of children who may be experiencing
difficulties in their development may end up being obscured by the high numbers of
children who are identified as struggling simply because they are summer born.
-
Through the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) Profile teachers can conduct a holistic
assessment of the child. Schools don’t have to pay anything to conduct this assessment.
The Early Excellent baseline test borrows some aspects of the EYFS, but narrows and
reduces the assessment to a tick box test. Schools must pay £85 registration + £3.10 per
child (excluding VAT)12 for the Early Excellence test. They are in effect being asked to pay
for a less holistic, less useful version of work that is already being carried out by teachers.
At a time where the government is talking about cuts and pressure on budgets this
makes little sense.
6. Baseline enables schools to be evaluated on the basis of progress measures, rather
than attainment measures. This can only be a good thing. Wrong!
-
The government doesn’t need to introduce baseline assessment to monitor pupil
progress. The government has previously accepted other assessments as a means to
show children’s progress to KS 2. The DfE is choosing not to accept the EYFS and
assessments that already go on in schools as a way of demonstrating progress.
7. There’s a professional consensus in favour of baseline testing – as shown by the
number of schools which have opted in. Wrong!
-
Teaching Unions, such as the NUT, ATL and NAHT, have all opposed baseline testing. The
campaign against baseline assessment is also supported by organisations including NAPE,
TACTYC, Early Education and academics working in the field of primary and early years
education.13
-
Over half of respondents to the DfE’s consultation on baseline testing were against the
proposals, and 73% of respondents were against schools choosing between commercial
providers.14
-
Although baseline testing is, in theory, optional, the arbitrary floor target of 85%
achieving the expected level at the end of KS 2, irrespective of their starting point, places
a huge pressure on schools to opt in to the test. This is why many schools have opted in
to testing.
11
Department for Education ‘Reception Baseline: Criteria for Potential Assessments’ (2014) pg. 2
12
Early Excellence Baseline Assessment Overview http://www.earlyexcellence.com/reception_baseline_overview.html
13
Too Much Too Soon – Say No to Baseline Assessment- Who Agrees http://www.toomuchtoosoon.org/say-no-tobaseline-assessment.html
14
Warwick Mansell ‘DfE primary assessment plans: some reactions’ NAHT Blog http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/newsand-media/blogs/warwick-mansell/dfe-primary-assessment-plans-some-reactions/