A research report into the results of the pilot Early Years Foundation Stage Profile (EYFSP) suggests that bilingual children will fare worse under the new system for assessing the achievement of five year olds.
The EYFSP assessment which assesses all children on a range of factors at the end of the reception year has recently been radically overhauled. The areas of learning have been redefined and the previous nine point scale for each area of learning has been abandoned in favour of a simpler system of 3 levels of achievement - 'emerging', 'expected' and 'exceeding'. The definition of what constitutes a good level of performance has also been changed. Previously this was defined as achieving six points or more across the seven personal, social and emotional development and communication language and literacy scales and 78 points or more across all 13 scales. Under the new system, children are required to be performing at the expected level in the three prime areas of personal, social and emotional development; physical development; and communication and language as well as in the specific areas of mathematics and literacy.
Whilst the proportion of children in the pilot achieving the new 'good level of development' fell overall, it fell further for bilingual children than most other groups. Under the old system 56 per cent of bilingual children reached a good level of development, whereas in the pilot this fell to less than a third at only 30 per cent. The biggest gaps between bilingual and monolingual children emerged in 'speaking', 'shape space and measure', and 'understanding', as well as in the specific areas of 'people and communities' and 'the world'.
A further controversial outcome was a very marked fall in the percentage of pupils from specific ethnic groups who appear disadvantaged by the new test. The proportion of Black children achieving a good level of development fell from 61 per cent in 2012 under the old system to 29 per cent in the pilot.
