Early years experts review the baselines

Early years and primary specialists from Early Education and TACTYC have reviewed the six baselines chosen by the Department for Education last month and concluded that they are not ‘in the best interests of children’.

Judgements on school effectiveness will not be relevant until 2022/23, and given the changes to Government policy, current intentions on baseline judgements could be obsolete by then, they add.

The experts also cite unresolved issues with using the baselines during the pilot year, including issues of comparability of data between the schemes. Schemes may also be withdrawn if they do not attract at least 10 per cent of primary schools.

Nevertheless, they acknowledge that some headteachers will feel pressured into choosing to use a baseline during the pilot year, which starts in September, and have therefore assessed the strengths and weaknesses of each of them against the principles of good assessment practice in the EYFS.

The six schemes accredited by the DfE had to meet specific criteria, including requirements to provide a numerical score, with the majority of the content related to communication, language and literacy and maths.

Given the criteria specified by the department, the experts said that no scheme is able to fully reflect the principles of EYFS assessment.

‘It is, however, apparent from analysis that only the Early Excellence model is based as closely as possible on EYFS principles, and would be consistent with ongoing pedagogical practice,’ they write.

Beatrice Merrick, chief executive of Early Education, said, ‘It is wrong that school leaders are being pressured to adopt assessment practices in their schools which are not in the best interests of children. Ministers must urgently rethink this policy and demonstrate their commitment to the sound early years principles, which underlie the Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum. Accountability of schools is an important principle, but the proposed baseline assessment tests are not a sound, effective or valuable means of showing how schools meet the needs of their children.’

Jane Payler, chair of TACTYC, said, ‘The overriding concern must be to ensure excellent quality early years provision for young children around the time of school entry. Any measures of accountability that threaten such provision must be resisted.’

Comparability study

The DfE has confirmed that a comparability study of the six baselines will take place later this year.

A spokesperson said, 'As part of our work to ensure the reception baselines produced by each provider are of a consistent and high quality we are undertaking a comparability study later this year. This will involve up to 1,000 pupils across a representative sample of schools taking two different baselines.
 
'As part of our plan for education, we want to see all children leaving primary school with a good standard of reading, writing and maths, and teachers agree that measuring progress is the best way to ensure primary schools are doing this.'

• Read the review of the baselines here