Nursery World - Without prejudice?

Educators are arguing over differing results in assessing black pupils at the Foundation Stage. Simon Vevers reports Details of the performance of minority ethnic pupils in the Foundation Stage Profile assessments were published by the DfES earlier this year without any great publicity. Perhaps there should have been publicity - or rather, an alarm sounded. For they showed that all minority ethnic pupil groups, and black African Caribbean children in particular, performed below average on all 13 scales of the assessments completed at the end of the reception year.

Details of the performance of minority ethnic pupils in the Foundation Stage Profile assessments were published by the DfES earlier this year without any great publicity. Perhaps there should have been publicity - or rather, an alarm sounded. For they showed that all minority ethnic pupil groups, and black African Caribbean children in particular, performed below average on all 13 scales of the assessments completed at the end of the reception year.

When the document, Ethnicity and Education - the evidence on minority ethnic pupils was published in January, the DfES said that 'as 2003 is the first year such data are available, the results should be treated with a degree of caution and are no more than an indication of attainment'.

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