THE QUESTIONS TO ASK
The research with which the Government tries to justify ever-earlier learning and assessment is woefully inadequate (News, 26 June). It just compares FS performance with KS1 performance. To be fair, the research is robust (a sample of 48,000 children isn't bad), but it fails to ask or answer a single interesting question. All it 'discovers' is that those who can answer FS questions well at five years old are, surprise, surprise, also more able to answer KS1 questions at seven years old.
This is laughable. The research doesn't even compare performance at age seven of one group who have done FS assessments against a group who have not. But even if it did, and demonstrated that those assessed at five were better exam fodder at seven, it would remain a desperately narrow piece of research.
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