Full range of England's primary phonics, grammar, punctuation and spelling, and maths tests freely available...

[Debbie_Hepplewhite]

The Department for Education in England provide the statutory test materials and guidance for free access after their formal use in England, see here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collectio ... ning-check

Key stage 2 tests
2016 test materials.

Key stage 2 tests: 2016 English grammar, punctuation and spelling test materials
23 May 2016 Guidance

Key stage 2 tests: 2016 English reading test materials
23 May 2016 Guidance

Key stage 2 tests: 2016 mathematics test materials
23 May 2016 Guidance

Scaled scores at key stage 2
5 July 2016 Detailed guide

Key stage 1 tests
2016 test materials.

Key stage 1 tests: 2016 English grammar, punctuation and spelling test materials
3 June 2016 Guidance

Key stage 1 tests: 2016 English reading test materials
3 June 2016 Guidance

Key stage 1 tests: 2016 mathematics test materials
3 June 2016 Guidance

Scaled scores at key stage 1
3 June 2016 Detailed guide

Phonics screening check
Scoring guidance, children’s materials and answer sheet.

Phonics screening check: 2016 materials
28 June 2016 Guidance

Phonics screening check: 2015 materials
29 June 2015 Guidance

Phonics screening check: 2014 materials
30 June 2014 Guidance

Phonics screening check: 2013 materials
28 June 2013 Guidance

I've already posted about these free materials (tests/assessments plus guidance for teachers) via the 'Helpful Documents and Practical Resources for Busy Teachers and Parents' forum - see here:

http://www.iferi.org/iferi_forum/viewto ... 1116#p1116

And I've added the information to the thread on developments in Australia where there is a call for the use of an early phonics check, as in England (where the Year One Phonics Screening Check is statutory), see here:

http://www.iferi.org/iferi_forum/viewto ... ?f=2&t=605

[Dick Schutz]

It will be fascinating to see how all of this plays out. Several matters to anticipate:

The tests documented here have to be considered along with the "Teacher Assessments" of each student by Year 2 and Year 6 teachers. The "Can Do's" a teacher must assess are much broader than those assessed by the tests. Teachers at Year 2 are also stuck with marking student tests and converting to standard scores. Since the tests are less comprehensive than the "Can Do's," teachers may well ask, "What good are the tests?

Although, "Levels" have been dropped, teachers assessments still categorize students into three categories. Will thes judgments be any different than the ubiquitous "three groups" for instructional purposes?

The Standard Score Scale for each test sets a Mean of 100 and a Range from 85 to 115. This sets the Standard Deviation at about 7.5, which is about half of the "usual" 15-16, or the much broader range running from 0-500 of some scales. I couldn't find any rationale for restricting the variation to less than that of the raw scores. It's going to make comparisons over chronological years very insensitive.

It's ironic that both the KS 1 and KS2 Reading Tests address "Comprehension" with all of the flaws noted in the paper, "Toward Educational Testing Reform: Inside Reading Achievement Tests"
http://epaa.asu.edu/ojs/article/view/1288/1183
More specifically, the tests don't measure "reading." The questions are formulaic and tap demands that no one ever encounters in "real reading." The passages the students are consistently above "age appropriate readability." The average readability:
KS 1
Bella 4.4
Castle 6.1
Parcel 5.6
Tony Ross 4.9
Greedy Man 4.0

KS2
Lost Queen 8.0
Wild Ride 8.6
Dodo 9.8

Also ironic. The KS 1 and 2 Reading tests turn the silk purse of the Year 1 Phonics Screening Check into a sows ear. That is, the Screening Check has all of the scores piling up at the top with a very thin long tail. The construction methodology of the subsequent reading tests tests forces the scores into a bell-shaped distribution with a "meeting standard " score at about half of the items.

Except for the "Arithmetic" section of the Mathematics tests, all of the tests--whatever the title--entail heavy "reading" demands. The correlations among the measures--whatever the titles--will almost certainly be as high as the reliability of the measures permit.

The DfE Standards and Testing Agency has done a tremendous amount of work, carefully documenting it as they go along.
I just noticed that their first report of KS2 results was released July 5.
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/s ... 6_text.pdf
There will be "more information to come," which we can look forward to.

[Dick Schutz]

Also relevant: 2016 School and college performance tables: Statement of Intent
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/s ... intent.pdf

Primary school data will be published in mid-December. Comprehensive school level data will then be available for KS2 (Yr 2), but the Performance Tables will not include include any data for KS1 (YR 2). It's not clear to me why the Yr2 info is excluded (?because schools marked the tests and teachers assessed students apart from the tests and therefor schools have the performance information?)

Also, no public availability of school performance on the Phonics Screening Check in KS 1. Presumably, PSC information and Yr 2 test and teacher-rated performance will be dealt with in separate reports at the national and LEA level, apart from the Performance Tables.

It's ironic that the least information is being collected and analyzed at the Reception and Yr's 1-2 stages, the most sensitive Years in determining a student's subsequent educational trajectory. That's the testing tradition, and the UK is not alone in this regard. In fact, the introduction of the Alphabetic Code [Phonics] Screening Check in England puts them out ahead of other Anglo countries. Again ironically, the Screening Check advance is at present being squandered in subsequent KS2 testing and instruction and is not being fully exploited in analyses of available Screening Check data in KS1.