18 September 2008 1

The Three Mountains of Time

Challenges and possibilities in Early Years Assessment

Jan DubielProgramme Manager EYFS

Cultural and political contexts and considerations

• The English view of children and childhood– Historical– Contemporary– Childish and childlike

• Current political context– Accountability for investment– Impact of initiatives– Underattainment, underachievement and

disengagement

Defining assessment

• What is the reality of assessment?– What do we want to

–demonstrate–describe–identify–record

• What or who is it for?

• What purpose does it serve?• What process does it entail?

• How does it respond to the ‘effects’ of provision and pedagogy (Katz)

The role of assessment

• Approaches to assessment

– provide evidence of development

– reflect and embody values and possibilities “Our nets define what we shall catch” (Eisner)

– protect and enshrine pedagogy

– define and support the evaluation of provision

– restrict or expand accountability

"if, as Pamela Moss suggests 'what isn't assessed tends to disappear from the curriculum' then we have to find a way to assess educational outcomes that we value. Otherwise outcomes that can be easily measured will take their place"

Margret Carr ‘Assessment in Early Childhood Settings’

quoting Pamela Moss ‘Can there be validity without reliability’

Choices and alternatives in assessment

• Between the individual spectrums of:

– Reality and convenience

– Reality and expediency

– Process and content

– Description and measurement

– (Effects of) instruction and facilitation

– Outcomes of thinking and outcomes of coverage; content and cognition

Futures and possibilities…

• Learning Stories• Schemas• Leuven Scales• EEL / BEEL• AcE• CEM PIPS / Aspects• Observational assessment• Locally produced systems;

(Regional / LA)• Phonic assessment /

CLLD

• EYFS Guidance• Creating the Picture• (Progress from the Start)• APP • Letters and Sounds• ELS Support• FSP additional

Guidance(s)• EYFSP Handbook

Current possibilities National Guidance

“When you think of child initiated activities and observing those, you are relying on a child to show what they can do, which is not necessarily the most reliable way”

Dr. Christine Merrell CEM

Assessment Birth - 5

• Considerations:– Describes children's independence, thinking and

application of knowledge, skills and understanding, and helps to support and develop them

– Is rooted in the reality of children's development– Assists, defines and owns accountability– Is manageable, workable and understood by

practitioners and stakeholders– Secures and protects an effective and appropriate

pedagogy– Trusts supports and empowers practitioners (Also

empowers the good people)– If it generates data then the data is real, meaningful and

useable.

The EYFS Profile

• Values of:

– Individuality complexity and idiosyncrasy of children’s development and learning

– Critical role of independence, autonomy and ownership of learning

– The importance of the environment in which provision is delivered

– The importance and interconnection of all aspects of learning

The EYFS Profile

• Elements of support

– Statutory accountability– Observational assessment and validity of

data– Ratio of child initiated and adult directed

evidence– Transition and appropriate pedagogy in Y1– Professional responsibility– Practitioner knowledge and expertise– Parents and children