Andrew Old's famous blog posting on Y1 PSC

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debbie
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Joined: Mon Oct 08, 2007 2:28 pm
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Andrew Old's famous blog posting on Y1 PSC

Post by debbie »

This topic of the Year One Phonics Screening Check has reared its head again on Twitter and someone flagged up Andrew Old's famous blog posting:

The arguments against the phonics screening check have been discredited

https://teachingbattleground.wordpress. ... scredited/
If you were around for the debates over the introduction of the check, you’d know that the following claims were made at the time:

Good readers would do badly in the phonics check.

The check would not tell us anything useful about their ability to read.

Teaching students to pass the phonics check would harm students’ ability to read later.

It would tell us nothing that teachers did not already know.

If you know anything about testing, you’d know that a test that identifies loads of pupils (in fact a big majority of the cohort) who will have a 99% chance of succeeding at the next level, is incredibly useful. And even the 66% figure for indicating those who will do poorly in the reading assessment is remarkable for a 5 minute check. Which teacher would not want to know if students were in the blue, red or yellow distributions above? This is remarkably extensive information about probable future performance gained in really very little time. It also tells us the first 3 claims above made by opponents of the phonics check do not match up with what generally happens. Those who do badly in the phonics check (particularly twice) are rarely good readers. Check performance tells us a lot about subsequent reading scores. Those students who have been most effectively prepared for the check, also appear to be better prepared for the reading test.

Of course, the last claim of the opponents, that teachers already knew all the stuff the check told them, could be true. But given the impressive figures for the predictive ability of the phonics check, I think the burden of proof now lies squarely on those who claim that teacher assessment would be more accurate.
Debbie Hepplewhite
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