Recognising Early Literacy Development: Assessing Children's Achievements

`This book examines the literacy development and assessment of children before the age of five years. It is highly relevant to all those professionally involved in assessment. Cathy Nutbrown explores the need for appropriate assessment practice to support teachers and illustrates the mismatch between the way teachers and researchers assess literacy. The book is worth buying for the final chapter alone, which provides an analysis of the newly developed Sheffield Early Literacy Development Profile. The actual tasks are included in the appendices. Thus, Cathy Nutbrown does not leave us frustrated. We are able to consider an ongoing assessment which is in tune with the best practice in teaching.

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.

Cathy Nutbrown is President of Early Education and Professor of Education in the School of Education at the University of Sheffield. Her research over the last 30 years, has focussed on young children’s learning and work with parents to support young children’s literacy development.  She won an ESRC Award for Research with Outstanding Impact on Society and a Nursery World Lifetime Achievement Award. She is author of over 150 publications including Early Literacy Work with Families (with Hannon and Morgan, Sage, 2005), Early Childhood Educational Research (Sage, 2019), and Home Learning Environments for Young Children (with Clough, Davies and Hannon, Sage, 2022).