Every Child Counts: The independent evaluation

(Introduction, no absract available) The relative improvement of primary mathematics teaching has been widely accepted, with the number of 11 year-olds gaining level 4 and above at key stage 2 having risen from 59% in 1998 to the current figure of over 77% (Williams, 2008). However, the picture for low achieving pupils is of widespread concern. Since 1998 the number of children failing to achieve level 3 has remained at about 6%. Whilst the majority of children have improved, the lowest performing children have remained at much the same level (Williams, 2008). There are many harmful consequences for pupils of low attainment in mathematics: in the short term (for example, having a negative effect on learning in a variety of areas of the curriculum, including mathematics itself), and in the longer term (for example, difficulties at secondary school and into adulthood). Slightly higher than 5% of lower attaining pupils at key stage 1 (KS1) go on to leave secondary education with no qualification at all in mathematics. It is widely agreed that a child who is having significant difficulties at an early stage (i.e., during KS1) is likely to under-achieve in mathematics throughout their school life, and beyond. To help address this problem, the Primary National Strategy (PNS) introduced the three wave model of intervention in mathematics, with provision for the lowest performing children to receive personalised, individual teaching. It is against this backdrop that the KPMG Foundation initiated the formation of the Every Child a Chance Trust in 2007. The trust seeks to provide a solution to the problem of underperformance in mathematics by the lowest attaining group of young children. The primary aim of the trust is to provide benefits to the children themselves and to the long term economic performance of the country as a whole. In 2007 the Every Child Counts (ECC) partnership was formed, comprising of the Every Child a Chance Trust, The National Strategies and the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) (now the Department for Education, DfE), and was joined by Edge Hill University in 2008. Later in that year (2007) the then Education Secretary, Ed Balls, announced1 a total of £144 million funding for both ECC and the sister initiative in reading - Every Child a Reader (ECaR). This committed the government to providing ECC (and ECaR) on a one-to-one basis to 30,000 six year old pupils by 2010/2011. The main aim of ECC is to develop and support an intervention for the lowest achieving 5% of KS1 children, with a subsidiary aim of impacting on standards more widely by influencing classroom practice and supporting less intensive (teaching assistant led) interventions for the low achieving 5-10% group. Much of the underlying pedagogical rationale of ECC was informed by a DfE-sponsored report ‘What Works for Children with Mathematical Difficulties?’ (Dowker, 2004). This report helped to bring together the evidence base for effective interventions. The conclusions of the report were that children who are underperforming in mathematics are highly susceptible to targeted intervention, and that 1 www.dcsf.gov.uk/pns/DisplayPN.cgi?pn_id=2007_0171 1 intervention should take place at an early age to reduce negative attitudes and allow access to other aspects of the curriculum. The ECC initiative develops mathematics interventions for Year 2 children within the following three waves: Wave 1 - Quality classroom teaching for all children; Wave 2 – Small group additional intervention for children just below national expectations; Wave 3 – Individual or very small group intervention with a trained and supported TA for children who are struggling, and additional intervention on an individual and/or very small group basis with a trained specialist teacher. The key ECC programme, Numbers Count (NC) provides an intensive one-to-one intervention for those children identified as lowest achievers in Wave 3 (see above). In practice it aims to raise their level of performance so that they achieve level 2c or higher, and wherever possible level 2b or higher by the end of KS1 – in effect putting them on a par with their peers, and enabling them to continue to progress in mathematics in the normal mainstream class setting. The ECC programme contributes funding to help schools to employ and train specialist Numbers Count teachers (NCTs) to deliver daily one-to-one intensive NC teaching for those children in the lowest 5% with the greatest difficulties. Alongside the early development of ECC, the Review of Mathematics Teaching in Early Years Settings and Primary Schools led by Sir Peter Williams commenced in 2007 and reported the following year. It largely sought to build on the Primary Framework for Mathematics and the Early Years Foundation Stage, and one of the six key areas considered was a review of ECC: “The review should specifically make recommendations to inform the development of an early intervention programme for children (aged five to seven) who are failing to master the basics of numeracy – Every Child Counts - as recently announced by the Prime Minister.” (p.2) The review team was able to observe the ECC initiative at its research stage, and it should be noted that the intervention itself had not yet been formally identified / finalised at that time. Their recommendations did, however, go on to inform the development of Numbers Count2.