Did only 30% of kids pass phonics test?

[MerryMarigold]

...when it was carried out last year and tested.

We had a letter from school saying as much, and that although the pass rate of the school should be 80%, they would be happy to hit the 30% score when the test was being tested.

Is that really true? I am no big fan of the phonics test. But I can't believe a test which had a pass rate of 30% when it was being developed, is expected to get a pass rate of 80%? No comprendo.

I think the implication was that schools weren't teachings phonics properly, not that the test was a bad one. But the test hasn't arrived yet, so we won't know which is true. Or maybe something else is true. Time may tell. You can't always/ever be sure with government initiatives.

So did they do it in schools where phonics was being taught 'properly' and what scores did it get there? Was the 30% just an average? Did even a few schools manage an 80%?

I would be very disappointed with a school that thought only 30% of its pupils would pass, given that was what the 'test' test pass rate was. If phonics are taught correctly in schools (which I believe they weren't in the tested schools) then children should (in the main) pass. They only include phonics that children in year1 should know.

I know Little Miss Green. I was a bit . But I don't know what this 30% figure represents?

• Does it represent schools where phonics wasn't taught properly?
• What was the figure for schools where it is taught properly?
• What is the national average?

Looking around on government websites it looks like there were 50 teachers involved in the initial tests, who then decided what the pass level should be. Apparently they trialled 18 different versions of the test.

Here i quote...
"How many children achieved the standard in the pilot?
Thirty-two per cent of six year olds who took the screening check reached the expected level, which was set by about 50 teachers whose schools were involved in the pilot.

When considering the outcomes of the pilot, it should be noted that pilot schools were only given details of the content and structure of the screening check shortly before the check took place. Pilot schools were therefore not familiar with the screening check when planning their teaching and learning, and so the pilot results might not be a good predictor of national performance."

Which I assume reading between the lines means not all pilot schools were actually teaching phonics pre-test.

This is interesting...
"Page 10 of the report states:

Almost half of schools (43%) indicated that the check had helped them to identify pupils with phonic decoding issues that they were not previously aware of.

Just over half (55%) of schools surveyed and many teachers from case study school felt that the check had not helped them to identify these issues. This was particularly the case with smaller schools.
"

Slightly OT, but what is the evidence for phonics as a the best teaching method? I admit to only having my experience with my 4 children to go on, but my two eldest who used a mixture of phonics, word-recognition, picture-clues etc to read made much faster progress than my two younger ones who were taught using mostly phonics. Additionally the elder two have never found spelling an issue whilst the two younger ones persist with phonetic spellings despite reading well.

Having ploughed through 1/2 of the report written by sheffield Hallam, it appears of the schools tested 2/3rds were using both phonics and guessing words by context/pictures etc pre using the test.

and...
quarter of head teachers in the case studies did not plan to take any action to change teaching in response to the Check (due to concerns about suitability and feeling it would not add to their current knowledge), and a quarter said they reviewed phonics teaching regardless of the Check. Another quarter said they would be making changes in light of the Check, and the rest said they may make changes, but felt it necessary to wait for the results of the Check before making any firm decisions.

That's really interesting, thankyou LittleMissGreen. Seems like a bit of a duff test to me! Daisy, your point is interesting too. My ds's school has moved from a heavily phonic based reading scheme, to a more 'integrated' approach, which seems an unusual move unless it is also based on some research which has exposed some issues with phonic 'exclusive' teaching.

I have been led to believe that :

• to 'pass' the phonics test a child needs to get 80% correct ( 32 right out of 40 words)

• in the pilot scheme (last year) 32% of children passed the test .

I imagine the idea is to see how many children now pass after the increased emphasis on phonics.

Apparently those children who don't pass will be required to take the test again in Year 2 to identify if they have made any further progress.

Hairytoe, that makes a tiny bit of sense, but not much. Why would you expect an increase from 32% to 80% in one year? Anyway, the good thing is our school haven't been coaching, or haven't asked us to at home, so I doubt they care about it very much. What do the government do about schools that are paying the test lip service?

Just clarifying as I know of one teacher who initially thought the 80% referred to the number of children expected to pass. This caused her to panic as it seemed very high.

No the 32% and the 80% refer to different things.

The 80% refers to the number of questions each child has to get right- 32 out of 40, a score of 80%.

The 32% refers to how many children managed this last year.

From what I understand, the pass level has been reduced and that could be why the new expected pass rates could be so much higher.
I also understand that in the pilots the information as to which pupils could be excluded from the results was not as clear as it is now. This means that those schools who have an incredibly high % of EAL students, who may have only been learning english since YR or later, who do not speak english at home, cannot skew the results. It shouldn't be inferred that in these schools the phonics teaching is poor as it is quite often excellent and intense.

The idea is that hopefully this year more than 32% of children will have passed the test( or got 32 or more out of 40).

Hope that isn't confusing , it doesn't help that coincidentally 32% passed last year and 32/40 (80%) is the pass mark. Those two 32s are unrelated!

See that's why I could never be a teacher myself. Whenever I try to explain anything it always ends up being as clear as mud

I can't see why 80% is seen as some unachievable target. They only need to be taught phonics and the teachers have had 2 years to get them to this point. I think accepting a 30% pass rate is a cop out and indicative of a willingness to let pupils fail right from the start of their education.

My son's school has done it and we just got a letter with my son's score plus saying that most of the children in his class passed it. It also says that for the ones who did not pass there would be steps in place so they pass it next year.

They said in the letter that not meeting the standard was 31 and below and that 32 to 40 (out of 40) was meeting the standard.

DD has had her 'special phonics day' and quite enjoyed the test, apparently one item was 'blurst' (but tale that with a big pinch of salt) I dont think I will be told how she scored until the end of year report though

In the trial tests I think it was a pass mark of 36/40 - so less wiggle room.

Just 32 per cent of the Year 1 pupils in 300 schools who took a trial run of the test passed it.

In total 8,963 children took part in the pilot in June.

In the pilot checks each school had a different threshold score (pass mark) between 31-34 so some less than the real check and some slightly higher

Oh I SEE hairytoe. Now I get it. I thought the 80% referred to the number of pupils passing! We do have a very high EAL rate, but there is NO WAY my ds will be passing this (and he is not EAL). I look forward to his score, but I would estimate it to be low.

Teacher did our Y1 class today. A lot more than 30% passed. The children who did not pass were not a surprise - they managed all the words within their phonics phase but not all of the others in phonics phases above where they are. . We have already discussed the results from our class this evening and made some decisions about next steps.

The actual process has been fine. We had a spot check yesterday by some officials which went well too. The children have not been fazed by it at all and coped with the real/non real aspect - and they all enjoyed their alien stickers afterwards :)

Learnandsay - the tests have arrived. This week in our school it is assessment/screening week - I assumed it was the same week for all schools.

There were 40 words and the pass threshold was 32.

The pilot was a very different format. Chn weren't told if a word was real or fake, which I'm fairly sure would have smashed my pass rate to bits. The test told me nothing that I don't already know since I teach phonics and informally asses it every day, plus reading.