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The use of the Infant Index/Baseline‐PLUS as a baseline assessment measure of literacy
Author(s) -
Lindsay Geoff,
Desforges Martin
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
journal of research in reading
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.077
H-Index - 51
eISSN - 1467-9817
pISSN - 0141-0423
DOI - 10.1111/1467-9817.00069
Subject(s) - baseline (sea) , cronbach's alpha , psychology , literacy , index (typography) , accreditation , developmental psychology , curriculum , medical education , pedagogy , psychometrics , medicine , political science , world wide web , computer science , law
The Infant Index was initially developed as a baseline assessment instrument for children at school entry, with literacy as a key component. A later version, Baseline‐PLUS, was developed to meet the accreditation criteria of the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority. The paper reports the results of a study of 5915 children, which comprised the 1996–97 cohort for one local education authority. The results indicate that the instrument is reliable (Cronbach’s alpha 0.92), that girls are rated as more advanced than boys in literacy and other domains, and that there are significant differences with respect to both children’s ethnic status and home language. Results for pre‐school experience are also reported, but these are confounded by the LEA’s policy of provision. The implications for the use of the Infant Index/Baseline‐PLUS and for the national scheme are explored.