What makes a good early years assessment?
By Dr Pat Preedy
In the 1990s, I was invited to be part of the Centre for Evaluation and Monitoring (CEM), the team that developed the Performance Indicators in Primary Schools (PIPS) baseline assessment for Reception-age children.
Despite criticism that such assessments would be unreliable, invalid and possibly harmful, many of us who were headteachers and early years teachers were convinced by the strong arguments put forward by the late Carol Fitz-Gibbon and Professor Peter Tymms. They presented strong research evidence that assessments in early reading and mathematics could be effective predictors of future performance combining reliable objective measures with teacher assessments.