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The First Mathematics Standard Assessment Tasks at Key Stage 1: issues raised by a five school study
Author(s) -
Davies Julie,
Brember Ivy
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
british educational research journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.171
H-Index - 89
eISSN - 1469-3518
pISSN - 0141-1926
DOI - 10.1080/0141192940200104
Subject(s) - mathematics education , key (lock) , stage (stratigraphy) , psychology , pedagogy , computer science , biology , computer security , paleontology
This paper assesses the value parents can put on the mathematical Standard Assessment Task (SAT) score as an indicator of what children are achieving in mathematics. The results of a study of a sample of all the Year 2 children (176) from five randomly selected primary schools within one Local Education Authority (LEA) are presented. Pupils' scores on Mathematics 7, a standardised mathematics test for 7 year‐olds (National Foundation for Educational Research INFER], 1987a), are compared to the mathematics Standard of Assessment Task (SAT) score elicited by them in the previous half term. Results show that children with the same NFER 7 score may be designated Level 1, 2 or 3 on the mathematics SAT. No child in social class three (unskilled, manual) or four (unemployed), comprising 50% of the sample, attained Level 3. Conclusions, based on such a small study, are tentative. There is a need to be aware that measuring a child's attainment in mathematics may be more complicated than simply looking at the SAT results.