STANDARDS IN READING AT KEY STAGE-1 - A CAUSE FOR CELEBRATION - A 7-YEAR CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDY

How to monitor and raise standards of educational attainment generally were issues addressed by the British Government in 1988 when the Nati onal Curriculum was introduced into all state-funded primary schools i n England and Wales: 'There is every reason for optimism that in provi ding a sound, sufficiently detailed framework over the next decade the National Curriculum will give children and teachers much needed help in achieving higher standards.' This paper assesses the value of looki ng closely at successive reading scores of cohorts of children in orde r to monitor reading attainments over time. The reading attainments of seven cohorts of Year 2 children from five randomly selected primary schools within one local education authority (LEA) (N = 1,329) are ana lysed to see if standards of literacy have changed since the introduct ion of the National Curriculum in 1989. Both quantitative and qualitat ive methods of data collection were used in this cross-sectional study . The reading attainments of each of the seven cohorts of Year 2 child ren, as measured by the Primary Reading Test, are presented. Headteach er perceptions of the effects of the National Curriculum on the teachi ng and learning of reading in their schools were collected through int erviews. Examination of the means of the standardized comprehension sc ores for each cohort reveals no statistically significant differences in attainment between any two cohorts. It was noted that the distribut ion of the reading scores was skewed towards underachievement in all s even cohorts. The relative stability in reading attainments contrasts with the aspiration that the introduction of the National Curriculum w ould raise standards. Headteachers saw this stability as the result of key stage 1 teachers working at an intense rate to safeguard the teac hing and learning of reading against the pressures exerted by the intr oduction of the National Curriculum and assessment procedures.