This paper is based on a study informed by a theory of assessment as a process of understanding where students are in their long term learning and what progress they are making over time. The report of the study  draws on data from the  first three phases of a current longitudinal study of development in literacy learning in the three years spanning preschool and the first two years of school. A previous longitudinal study tracked growth in literacy achievement in a cohort of 1,000 students through seven years of primary school, from school entry. A scale of developing literacy achievement was derived from the data collected in this study, and data from the current study, with a new cohort of 200 students, will be used to extend this scale to include preschool achievement.

Research questions

Key research questions include:

* what does progress in literacy learning look like in preschool and school?

*what range of literacy knowlwdge and skills are experienced and used by children  prior to the start of school?

*what is the distribution of these experiences and skills across a randomly selected cohort of children?

*What literacy skills and knowledge are children  able to use at the beginning of school?

*What changes take place during the transition to formal school?

A set of early literacy assessments was developed and administered to a nationally representative sample of Australian children in a longitudinal study in 1999, the Longitudinal Literacy and Numeracy Study (Meiers, Khoo, Rowe, Stephanou, Anderson, & Nolan, 2006). The literacy activities were informed by contemporary research focusing on critical aspects in the development of effective literacy skills. The activities were designed to interest and engage students and were built around familiar contexts. The literacy activities included many ‘hands-on’ activities and authentic texts for example, high quality children’s picture storybooks. Since the initial study, similar literacy activities have been used in many other studies of students’ growth in literacy learning in the early years of school, for example, In Teachers’ Hands (Louden, Rohl, Barratt Pugh, Cairney, Elderfield, House, Meiers, Rivalland, & Rowe, 2005).

More recently, in a major review of assessment, Reforming Educational Assessment, Geoff Masters (2013, Australian Education Review, Number 57, ACER)  argues for a unified theory of assessment. This theory views assessment through a simple unifying principle, that  the fundamental purpose of assessment is to establish where learners are in their learning at the time of assessment. This study provides evidence of the nature of growth in literacy learning, in preschool, and in the first two years of schooling, and thus extends the understanding of the nature of achievement in the learning domainf literacy.

The study has implications for teaching, as the assessments can be used to identify starting points for further tecahing and learning (Masters, 2013).  

Masters, G. N. (2013). Reforming Educational Assessment: Imperatives, principles and challenges. Australian Education Review Number 57, Australian Council for Educational Research Meiers, M., Khoo, S.T., Rowe, K., Stephanou, A., Anderson, P., Nolan, K. (2006). Growth in Literacy and Numeracy in the First Three Years of School. Research Monograph 61, Australian Council for Educational Research.