Session Information
09 SES 12 B, Language and Literacy Assessments (Part 2)
Paper Session
Contribution
This paper traces the development and subsequent uses of a set of five linked literacy assessment tools for students in the early years of school.
The literacy assessment instruments were initially created in the context of seven-year longitudinal study of students’ growth in literacy and numeracy, from entry to primary school to the transition to secondary school. The tasks in these five assessments were administered by teachers in a one-on-one interview. The tasks focused on critical aspects of literacy, and included hands-on activities and authentic texts, for example, quality children’s picture storybooks. The assessment process provided teachers with insights into their students’ capacities in literacy. Analysis of the assessment data showed a wide distribution of literacy achievement at school entry and through the first three years of school.
The assessment data was used to develop a common literacy scale on which students’ performance on each assessment occasion could be measured. The assessment tasks were equated vertically to develop a long measurement scale. The calibration, equating of assessment tasks and construction of the scales were carried out based on the Rasch partial credit model. The capacity of these assessment instruments and scales to measure student performance over time on the same scale provided a model which has proved to be useful in several subsequent research studies.
Two major studies of effective teaching literacy teaching practices in the first three years of school attempted to make an evidential link between the performance of students and the literacy teaching practices of their teachers. The literacy assessment instruments developed for the original longitudinal study were used to measure the progress of young children in the early years and, on the basis of value-added analyses of their students’ performances, teachers were identified as being more or less effective. This information was combined with classroom observations of literacy teaching practices of these teachers, and further analysis of video observations of these teachers was used to strengthen a classroom observation schedule that described these practices.
The robustness of the model of the longitudinal study literacy instruments has subsequently been recognised by two large education systems. Sets of assessment instruments for use by all teachers in the early years of school have been commissioned by these systems, and closely followed the original design.
Another four-year study used the assessment instruments from the longitudinal study to follow the progress of two cohorts of students in another education system, in an attempt to gain insights into the effectiveness of different approaches to literacy teaching.
Currently, a new longitudinal study is being established. This study will track the growth in literacy in a random sample of children, across the two years prior to school until the third year of school education. A new set of instruments has been developed for the school years, and work has commenced on instruments for children aged from three to five years.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Meiers, M., Khoo, S.T., Rowe, K., Stephanou, Anderson, P. & Nolan, K. (2006). Growth in Literacy and Numeracy in the First Three Years at School. ACER Research Monograph 61. Australian Council for Educational Research Louden, W., Rohl, M., Barratt Pugh, C., Brown, C., Cairney, T., Elderfield, J., House, H., Meiers, M., Rivalland, J., Rowe, K. (2005) Effective Literacy Teaching Practices in the Early Years of Schooling. Commonwealth of Australia. http://www.dest.gov.au/
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