Ben and Jack age 7 years and 6 months
Ben and Jack age 7 years and 6 months
Ben and Jack have mild learning difficulties and are supported by an outreach Learning Support Team. The team uses YARC to benchmark pupils’ reading attainment and to track progress. In the majority of cases, YARC has proved both accurate and very useful in supporting pupils and their teachers.
Working from the original guidance on scoring, a small number of children who were at the Beginner level (where a lower level passage is not available) presented problems for the team. Among these were Ben and Jack.
Ben was given the Beginner Passage from Form A and he made four reading errors. He went on to read the Level 1 passage and made 15 errors (the maximum upon which standardised scores then could be based).
Ben’s SAS for reading accuracy was 76.
Jack read the same passages but exceeded the discontinuation rule for Level 1.
Jack’s reading accuracy based on the Beginner passage was 81.
On the face of it this gives Jack, who is marginally the weaker reader, a higher SAS than Ben. Both scores are in the below average range and indicate that the boys need substantial support. However, in some cases, funding can be attached to assessment outcomes and it is important that this is not jeopardised by what may appear to be anomalous results.
Applying the new scoring guidance, which includes data in three months age bands, the boys’ scores are as follows:
| Errors | Ability Score | Average AS | SAS | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ben | ||||
| Beginner | 4 | 30 | 26 | 82 |
| Level 1 | 15 | 21 | ||
| Jack | ||||
| Beginner | 4 | 30 | 23 | 78 |
| Level 1 | 16 | 16 |
In both cases the boys have significant reading difficulties..
Looking at the confidence intervals is helpful in such cases. Taking the extremes of the confidence bands Ben’s SAS is between 79 and 85 and Jack’s SAS is between 78 and 82.
