Designing a formative e‐assessment: Latent class analysis of early reading skills

Computer‐based testing, or e‐assessment, has the potential to deliver immediate results for the benefit of schools. This paper describes a project that aimed to exploit this potential by designing e‐assessments where the results were intended for use by teachers in planning the next steps in teaching and learning: low‐stakes, formative assessment. A pair of tests assessing early reading was developed, with the test items based on a range of distinct skills, including phonological segmentation, rhyming and word recognition. The tests were administered on a screen with the questions presented aurally and visually. In trials, a total of 1345 test results were obtained from pupils aged 5–7 years from 26 schools. Latent class analysis was used to identify patterns of performance within the data. Four latent classes were distinguished, each characterised by a pattern of responses related to the different test items. The strengths and weaknesses in early reading skills implied by each of these latent classes were described in terms of formative ‘profiles’ provided for teachers in an online reporting package together with indicators for the next steps in teaching. The research resulted in an automated marking and analysis system that can be genuinely formative.     

I. CHILDREN IN INSTITUTIONAL CARE: DELAYED DEVELOPMENT AND RESILIENCE

Children exposed to institutional care often suffer from “structural neglect” which may include minimum physical resources, unfavorable and unstable staffing patterns, and socially emotionally inadequate caregiver‐child interactions. This chapter is devoted to the analysis of the ill effects of early institutional experiences on resident children's development. Delays in the important areas of physical, hormonal, cognitive, and emotional development are discussed. The evidence for and against the existence of a distinctive set of co‐occurring developmental problems in institutionalized children is weighed and found to not yet convincingly demonstrate a “postinstitutional syndrome.” Finally, shared and nonshared features of the institutional environment and specific genetic, temperamental, and physical characteristics of the individual child are examined that might make a crucial difference in whether early institutional rearing leaves irreversible scars.     

Enigmatic Variations: Honours Degree Assessment Regulations in the UK

The debate in the UK about the continued existence of the honours degree classification led to a survey of the assessment regulations in 35 varied higher education institutions. This revealed considerable variation in the way in which honours degree classifications are determined, and also in the handling of weak performances by students. Such variability, deriving from a system in which institutional autonomy is to the fore, raises a question about equitability in the treatment of students. A brief allusion is made to the variability in assessment regulations in the US and Australia.