Recognising Early Literacy Development : Assessing Children's Achievements

This is a research text which balances theory with practical realism. It is particularly relevant today with the introduction of Baseline Assessment. Teachers and researchers will find much that they can relate to and learn from. It is clearly written and deserves to be widely read. However, it may make for uncomfortable reading as Cathy Nutbrown challenges all concerned with the assessment of early literacy development to reflect on exactly what they are doing and why′ - British Educational Research

Recognising Early Literacy Development presents a new view of the many purposes of assessment in early literacy development. Issues in early literacy assessment, current assessment material, the purposes of literacy assessment, government policy, practice in schools, baseline assessment of literacy, the need for new research measures of early literacy, are all recurrent themes of the book. The author reviews and discusses three decades of policy and practice in assessing literacy development in the years 3 to 5 - from recognising in the late 1960s that literacy in these years exists, to proposals in 1997 for official assessment of literacy at 5 years.