Growing Up in Scotland (GUS):  Scottish Government funded study tracking the lives of two cohorts of children from across Scotland. This report draws together findings from 10 years of analysis of the GUS data to highlight how the study has contributed to the evidence base on children and families in Scotland, in particular on the extent of and how to reduce inequalities in outcomes in the early years.

It is a very clearly presented report that is easy read.

Main Findings:

Even in the early years of a child’s life, there are consistent inequalities, not only in outcomes, but particularly in risk behaviours that we believe have longer-term consequences for health and development. There is considerable inequality that mothers face in the early years. Socio-economically disadvantaged households appear to face a double burden of inequality with the child and the main carer at greater risk of negative health outcomes.

Factors that seem to promote positive outcomes:

• A rich home learning environment can improve cognitive development for all children, regardless of their socio-economic background
• High quality early learning and childcare can help to reduce inequalities in cognitive development
• Being born to an older mother makes children more resilient to a range of negative outcomes.
• Improving the physical and mental health of mothers is likely to have a positive effect on the health and development of their children.
• Supporting parenting skills can help protect against the impact of adversity and disadvantage
• The role of the health visitor, in providing one-to-one advice and support to parents, should be central in the efforts to tackle inequalities in the early years.

Despite being intended only for use in statutory national assessments,  attainment targets and levels were often used for in-school assessment between key stages in order to monitor whether pupils were on track to achieve expected levels at the end of key stages. This distorted the purpose of in-school assessment, particularly day-to-day formative assessment. This had a negative impact on teaching.

Final report of the Commission on Assessment without Levels clearly explains the rationale for scrapping levels.

Have a look at the full report for advice such as:

Evaluating external assessment systems;

” The Commission recognises that many schools may consider using assessment systems that have been developed by external providers. Schools should develop their approach to assessment before considering external assessment systems in order that products can be evaluated according to how they fit with the school’s aims, assessment policy and curriculum.”

This type of advice will help to consider a policy for looking into the increasing number of assessment products available.

There is an interesting commentary on the notion of Mastery in assessment:

“The word mastery is increasingly appearing in assessment systems and in discussions about assessment. Unfortunately, it is used in a number of different ways and there is a risk of confusion if it is not clear which meaning is intended.” Read more on p17 of the Report.