§ Lord Priorasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether the materials used to support the early literacy support were tested on representative samples of matched experimental and control children with pre and post testing carried out using standardised tests before their introduction; and whether the results of any such tests will be made available to the public. [HL1769]
§ Baroness Ashton of UphollandThe Early Literacy Support Programme, which is based on the teaching objectives in the National Literacy StrategyFramework for teaching, was piloted during 2000–01 in about 1,000 year 1 classes in 50 local education authorities. The pilot was monitored by Ofsted, which reported that:
In general, the quality of teaching was good in the Year I lessons observed in the vast majority of schools. Pupils' responses to the intervention sessions were overwhelmingly positive. Teachers observed marked gains in pupils' confidence and willingness to contribute within the Literacy Hour".No experimental and control groups or standardised tests were used as part of the pilot.