The NFER formative assessment service Using Challenges with lower and higher attaining pupils Jon Williamson
The NFER formative assessment service - Using Challenges with lower and higher attaining pupils v2 NFER, 2010. All rights reserved. The NFER formative assessment service is a trademark of the NFER. NFER The Mere Upton Park Slough Berkshire SL1 2DQ 2 The NFER formative assessment service Key Stage 1 Maths Assessment Pack
Contents Introduction... 2 Accessibility... 3 Choosing Challenges... 4 Reporting... 7
Introduction Introduction This booklet gives details of how to use the NFER formative assessment service with lower and higher attaining pupils. It should be read alongside the NFER formative assessment service Teacher s Guide. In addition to the overall information found there, the following details can be found in this booklet. How to assign tests to children within your class whose abilities do not match those of the supplied tests; How to analyse the performance of these children in the reporting website. 2 The NFER formative assessment service Key Stage 1 Maths Assessment Pack
Accessibility Accessibility The NFER formative assessment service is designed to be as accessible as the technology used allows. In terms of assessment design it has significant benefits for pupils with reading difficulties. These include: Language use is straightforward, and supported by graphic information. Voiceovers help lower attaining readers be tested on the subject of an assessment rather than their ability to read note that voiceovers are available for all KS1 Challenges and Lower KS2 maths and science. The NFER formative assessment service enables tracking of SEN (and Gifted and Talented) groups within a school (see later sections in this document) In addition, lower attaining pupils can be set Challenges from lower Key Stages at a more appropriate level (see below). In terms of the technology used, accessibility is as follows: In Challenges tabbing and keyboards work where appropriate. All text is open and can be highlighted so can be read by screen readers. The Reporting Website can be driven using the keyboard only; there are text rollovers on the charts so no key information is communicated through colour, and there are always text alternatives. The formative assessment service can be set up for a pupil with SEN by the teacher, so the child does not need to access it. The NFER formative assessment service Key Stage 1 Maths Assessment Pack 3
Choosing Challenges Choosing Challenges NFER formative assessment service assessments When you subscribe to the NFER formative assessment service you are provided with a series of Challenges designed for pupils within the Key Stage or part Key Stage chosen. In some circumstances pupils attainments may be significantly above or below the national curriculum levels at which the tests are designed to operate. Assessment KS1 maths Lower KS2 Maths Upper KS2 Maths KS1 Reading Levels 1-3 Lower KS2 Reading Levels 3-4 secure level 1 or above secure level 2 or above secure level 3 or above Upper KS2 Reading secure level 3 to level 5 KS1 Science Lower KS2 Science Upper KS2 Science secure level 1 or above secure level 2 or above secure level 3 or above Approximate NC Level Therefore in order to assess a child s abilities with a more appropriate instrument you may wish to apply a test from a lower or higher age-range assessment. Various Challenges can be used in place of the age appropriate Challenge. 4 The NFER formative assessment service Key Stage 1 Maths Assessment Pack
Choosing Challenges Reading assessments Key Stage 1 Lower Key Stage 2 Upper Key Stage 2 Stories Stories Stories Fables Traditional tales Information (2 units) Newspapers Biography Information (website) Persuasion Poetry Poetry Poetry Explanation (website) Playscripts Playscripts Early reading Letters Maths assessments Key Stage 1 Lower Key Stage 2 Upper Key Stage 2 Number Base ten Fractions Fractions and decimals Decimals Calculations Proportions Models for calculation Money Number and shape Measures Algebra Angles and rotation Shape and space Shape and space Position and movement Data handling Handling data How to assign a test Assigning a Challenge from a different assessment to that appropriate to the age range of your class follows the same procedure as assigning at Challenge from the standard assessment. See page 29 of the the NFER formative assessment service Teacher s Guide for more information. In order to be able to assign tests from a lower or higher age range Assessment you need to have a valid subscription for that assessment. The NFER formative assessment service Key Stage 1 Maths Assessment Pack 5
Choosing Challenges Setting up groups It is also possible to monitor SEN or Gifted and Talented groups within the NFER formative assessment service. This can be done in two ways: A group can be set up for either set of pupils see page 10 of the NFER formative assessment service Administrator s Guide. Challenges can now be assigned to the teaching group in the normal fashion. Reports can be viewed in the reporting website. For more information on this, please see the next section SEN and G&T can be set as a Teacher Defined variable. See page 13 of the the NFER formative assessment service Administrator s Guide for details of how to do this, Reports pertaining to children assigned these properties can be seen b y filtering results in the Reporting Website, using the Show Results for drop down box at the top of most reporting screens 6 The NFER formative assessment service Key Stage 1 Maths Assessment Pack
Reporting Reporting Viewing results Having taken a test, the results will be available in the reporting website. Access this in the normal way by going to https://fas.nfer.ac.uk/reporting and clicking on reports log-in. Recent tests are displayed on the home page (this can always be accessed by clicking on the home tab). If the test is not listed here you will be able to access it by clicking on the teacher reports tab, selecting the correct subject and group, and then choosing the test name. All reports are available. Important key data is available for these pupils, including: Scale scores and raw scores. National Curriculum levels and sub-levels. Profiles identifying next step teaching suggestions. Progress. Level and target level distributions. and much more Points to note There are some reports that do not report all data, or may lose some formatting for Challenges that have been taken out of the expected Key Stage. These are: In Review Group Performance in a subject tests taken out of the expected Key Stage are not listed in the Units Taken in Stage column. When viewing an individual child s performance in a subject, Age Standardised scores are not available for tests taken out of the expected Key Stage. Also, in this report you can see that if a child has taken Challenges from a variety of age ranges, scale scores will have different relationships to level a high scale score on a test for a lower age may have a lower level than a low scale score for a higher age. This is to be expected because of the relative difficulty of the tests. When you display an individual pupil report from the all subjects summary, units taken from outside the expected key stage will be appended to the graph. The NFER formative assessment service Key Stage 1 Maths Assessment Pack 7