Using baseline assessment data to make international comparisons

Abstract

International studies have concentrated on the achievements of children during or at the end of their schooling. But such data are difficult to interpret without knowing the progress that they have made since they started school. This article argues that the time has come to study the starting points of children as they begin their education. Such a study is doubtless difficult to design and this study reports an analysis of data from a baseline assessment carried out with thousands of children starting school in very different circumstances, with different languages and cultures and in different countries. It is a pilot international study. Although difficulties are exposed the analyses indicate that such a study is now possible and, it is argued, should be carried out.

The mathematical knowledge and understanding young children bring to school

“…With the exception of "9", virtually all children in our sample were matching successfully by the end of the first year of school. Data from four year olds in the United Kingdom, reported by Tymms, Merrell, and Jones (2004), related to students' capacity to identify digits. The order of increasing difficulty was 4, 1, 3, 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9.…”

“…Of course, some parents are in a better position than others to support the mathematical development of their children, and many adults think of mathematics for young children as counting and adding numbers (Coates & Thompson, 1999). There is considerable evidence (e.g., Siegler, 2003;Tymms, Merrell, & Jones, 2004) that children from low income or other disadvantaged backgrounds demonstrate lower achievement on arrival at school than other students.…”

what children know and can do when they start school and how this varies between countries

“…It also builds upon other recently published work (Tymms, Merrell and Jones, 2004, Van de Rijt et al 2003, by using larger sample sizes.…”

Attitude items and low ability students: the need for a cautious approach to interpretation

“…Such studies have, in turn, highlighted different crucial aspects to take into account when making such comparisons. Some of them stress that since international studies are cross-sectional, they can say little about schooling per se and direct comparisons of educational systems are not possible (Tymms et al, 2004). Other studies question the nature of the test questions.…”