Flaws in plans for a reading test

29 November 2010 1 min read John Freeman Education

The education white paper proposes a "light-touch, phonics-based check" to test the reading of all Year 1 pupils. The test will be based on words like "street" and "cat", and some non-words like "flape". Michael Gove says it will be "impossible" for schools to drill pupils to pass the test, which will be a "true gauge" of a child"s reading skills. Let's unpack all that and see what it means.

Of course, children should be assessed to find out whether they are making progress in reading, so that support can be provided when needed. And at this early age, testing the decoding of words rather than sentences may be sensible. But will the test really be consistent, repeatable and objective? Won't some class teachers tend to give the benefit of the doubt while others are stricter?

And a test impossible to drill? Surely not. I can already visualise children, teachers and parents spending weeks with flash cards; word lists; computer-based assessment with voice recognition technology - if only we had a government agency specialising in IT this could be in place already!

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