cover image: Reading the data: - What can quantitative analyses tell us about the national impacts of the phonics

Reading the data: - What can quantitative analyses tell us about the national impacts of the phonics

30 Oct 2024

The use of the ONS statistical data in this work does not imply the endorsement of the ONS in relation to the interpretation or analysis of the statistical data. [...] Trends in key stage 1 reading and writing: ▪ After the introduction of the PSC, an existing general upward trend in the proportion of children meeting the ‘expected standard’ in key stage 1 (KS1) reading continued, though at a slower and stalling rate compared to that before the introduction of the check. [...] Again, at this point, they can ‘pass,’ or ‘fail.’ Therefore, there are three possible outcomes of the check: ‘pass,’ ‘fail-pass,’ or ‘fail-fail.’ Figure 4 shows the percentage of children present in year 1 who attained each outcome, in the years spanning the introduction of the PSC in 2012 to 2019, the final year with data before the Covid pandemic.35 In the first cohort subject to the check – tho. [...] Is there a shift in the proportions of similar pupils meeting the ‘expected standard’ for reading at KS2 that corresponds to the introduction of the PSC? The main thing that Figure 13 highlights is the extreme difficulty, if not impossibility, of drawing conclusions about the effectiveness of the PSC based on pupils’ subsequent KS2 reading scores. [...] Responses were generally similar at the two time points, and the most common was that it ‘has little effect on the curriculum.’ This contrasts with findings in the 2015 evaluation for the Department for Education, which found that in the early years after the introduction of the check, there was ‘evidence that the introduction of the PSC has led to schools making changes to their phonics teaching.

Authors

Campbell1,T

Related Organizations

Pages
72
Published in
United Kingdom

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