Using CEM’s Systems to Monitor Pupils’ Progress

1Christine.Merrell@cem.dur.ac.ukwww.cemcentre.org

CEM systems

• 1.1 million assessments are delivered each year

• Pupils aged 3 – 18 years

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• Pupils aged 3 – 18 years

• CEM systems used in 44 countries

Scotland

• CEM works with 15 Scottish Authorities– 650 schools use the Primary 1 Baseline Assessment

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• England• Scotland • Wales• Australia• New Zealand

• Abu Dhabi• International Schools

PIPS On-entry Baseline Assessment

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• Netherlands• Germany• South Africa• Hong Kong• Serbia• Luxembourg

Why assess?

• Profile of strengths and weaknesses for planning appropriate learning experiences

• Early indicator of special educational

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• Early indicator of special educational needs

• Monitor progress and attitudes of pupils and cohorts over time

• Comparisons– Children within a class– Groups such as boys/girls– Classes within a year-group– Current cohorts with previous ones– Other schools within a consortium and nationally

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– Other schools within a consortium and nationally

• Progress over time

• Research– Within school– Nationally and internationally

• Layers of information:– Diagnostic at pupil-level– Group and class trends– School-level information (including trends

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– School-level information (including trends over time)

– Authority-level– National-level

• Pre-school and Primary– Start and end of Pre-school

• Secondary– Start of S1– S2– Predictions of later

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school– Start and end of Primary 1

– P2, P3, P4, P5, P6, P7

– Predictions of later assessment grades

Designing a baseline assessmentfor young children

• For value-added purposes, need items that are good indicators of later attainment

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Correlation = 0

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Correlation = 1

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Correlation = 0.7

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Child development and predicting later attainment

• Speech & Language– Before 6 months vowels are predominant– After 6 months use of consonants– 8 months: Babbling

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– 8 months: Babbling– 1 year: 6 words recognised by mother– 18 months: Approx. 50 words understood by mother– 2 years: Mother understands language– 3 years: Other adults understand language

Reading

When beginning to read, children need different types of knowledge:

• Global and cultural awareness

• Vocabulary and basic

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• Vocabulary and basic understanding of language

• Conventions of print

• Phonological awareness

Mathematics

• Babies born with numerosity of small quantities– Before acquisition of language– Subitising

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Early Arithmetic

Subitising

Learning to count

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Learning to count

Learning simple arithmetic

Start and End of Pre-school

• Language• Number• Personal, social and emotional

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development• Motor development

Start and End of Primary 1

• Early Reading• Early Maths• Personal, social and emotional

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development

• Attitudes• Behaviour

What children know and can do:Lowest 1% in Scotland

• Vocabulary– Carrots, castle, butterfly

• Early Reading

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– Differentiate between reading and writing activities

• Early Maths– Identify biggest and smallest objects from a group of three

Average in Scotland

• Vocabulary– Saxophone, toadstool

• Early Reading– Identify several upper and lower case letters

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– Identify several upper and lower case letters

• Early Maths– Name single digits– Solve informally presented sums

Highest 1% in Scotland

• Early Reading– Read passages which include words such as ‘your’, ‘leave’, ‘everyone’, ‘thought’

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• Early Maths– Carry out formally presented calculations e.g. 42 – 17 =

– Identify 3-digit numbers

Primary 2 – 7 ~ Diagnostic

• Reading– Word Recognition, Decoding, Comprehension

• Spelling• General Maths

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• General Maths• Mental Arithmetic• Attitudes• Picture Vocabulary• Non-verbal Ability

Reading – an Interactive Compensatory Process

Word recognition/decoding Comprehension

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Problems with Literacy Acquisition

Phonological deficit

Visual memoryThese

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Visual memory

Speed of processing

These can overlap

Maths Difficulties

• Institutional/Environmental

• Motivational

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• Motivational

• Neuropsychological

Monitoring Progress: The Importance of Developed Ability

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Vocabulary Acquisition and Non-verbal Ability

Start of schoolEarly maths average for his age

End of Primary 1Maths average for

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Maths average for his age

Primary 3Maths average for his age

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In Primary 3, Ian’s Picture Vocabulary and Non-verbal Ability are also assessed

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The Non-Verbal elementassesses Ian’s ability to solve novel puzzles

quickly and accurately

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Combined, these assessments give a

picture of Ian’s ‘Developed Ability’

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Ian’s Developed Ability score suggests that he is a very able boy, far above

average

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Ian might be able to do better in maths but without the added dimension of Developed Ability (Vocabulary and Non-verbal Ability), it would be

difficult to identify this

Traditional approach

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Low Average High

Adaptive approach

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Low Average High

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