Highland Diagnostic Assessment Updates

We were making a few updates to some of the Highland diagnostic assessment materials towards the end of last year and these have now been finalised and I have updated the relevant materials on both the blog and the shared drive.

The two assessments that were amended were Grouping and Place Value and Basic Facts.  These amendments reflect the updates that were made to the Summary Documents which would have then been used to update the Highland Numeracy Progression (if the Development Officer post had continued).  Details of the changes are outlined below.

If you are using older versions of the assessments there is no need to start from scratch again although it may be useful to ask any ‘new’ or ‘amended’ questions but otherwise just continue from where is most appropriate for the pupil and update on the new recording sheets.

Grouping and Place 

• Up to the end of First*:
  • There is no difference to the 2019 version.
• Up to the end of First**:
  • We have added one supplementary question to provide a little more clarity on an existing question.
• Up to the end of First***:
  • We have added an additional question that assesses previously assessed content but will provide a more accurate reflection of whether pupils show a greater understanding of grouping with numbers up to 1000 or are just using a procedure without the underlying mathematical understanding.
• Up to the end of Second*:
  • A whole number problem was rephrased so that it is now within the range up to 10,000 (as opposed to 100,000).  The original problem has been moved to Second**.
  • We have also added a second decimal problem to explore pupils understanding of tenths within/to one whole.
  • An existing decimal problem has been moved to Second**.
• Up to the end of Second**:
  • The whole number problem from Second* that was rephrased was moved to Second**.
  • A decimal problem was moved from Second* to Second**.
  • A rounding problem involving a decimal was moved from Second*** to Second**.
• Up to the end of Second***:
  • A rounding problem involving a decimal was moved from Second*** to Second**.

Basic Facts

• Questions from Tasks 1, 2 and 3 have been reorganised into two tasks and four additional questions that test an application of previously acquired skills have been added.
• Up to the end of Early***:
  • Less emphasis is placed on instant recall (although many pupils will still be able to do this at that level).  Pupils can use materials, counting methods or strategies to solve the problems.  We think this will be a welcome adjustment.
• Up to the end of First*:
  • Some of the add/sub facts WITHIN 10 have been moved from First* to First** (although many pupils will be able to instantly recall these).
  • The add/sub ‘ten and…’ facts have been moved from First** to First*.
• Up to the end of First**:
  • Some of the add/sub facts WITHIN 10 have been moved to First** from First*.
  • The add/sub ‘ten and…’ facts have been moved from First** to First*.
  • Four additional problems have been added that look at application of known facts particularly with multiples of 10.
  • The use of the word ‘difference’ is included.
• Up to the end of First***:
  • Some add/sub facts WITHIN 20 have been moved from Second* to First***.
  • Mult/div facts with 3s and 4s have been moved from Second* to First***.
  • Two additional problems have been added that look at application of known facts particularly with multiples of 10 and 100 as well as doubles within/to 40.
  • The use of the word ‘product’ is included.
• Up to the end of Second*:
  • Some add/sub facts WITHIN 20 have been moved from Second* to First***.
  • Mult/div facts with 3s and 4s have been moved from Second* to First***.
  • Mult/div facts with 8s have been moved from Second** to Second*.
  • Four additional problems have been added that look at application of known facts – two of these are with decimals and two are with whole numbers.
• Up to the end of Second**:
  • Four additional problems have been added that look at application of known facts.
    • One add/sub problem involving decimals to 1 d.p.
    • One mult/div problem involving multiplying single digit numbers by a two-digit multiple of ten.
    • Two mult/div problems involving multiplying and dividing by 10 (with decimals), and up to 1000 (with whole numbers).
• Up to the end of Second***:
  • Three additional problems have been added that look at application of known facts and involve mult/div and subtraction with decimals.
• Up to the end of Third*:
  • No changes.

• Change in wording from First*** onwards in the ‘Decision’ column.
  • The wording has been amended to include the part in bold here: ‘could instantly recall (or very fast and efficient strategy)‘.  While this makes the expectations at that stage clearer perhaps, please keep in mind that this is still a knowledge assessment and the expectation is that the pupils can do this very quickly (so within about 3 seconds).  If they are needing to use a lot of thinking time, counting strategies or a part-whole strategy that isn’t almost instant then this is not yet knowledge.  It is however useful information and can inform your teaching.

All relevant materials associated with these have been updated and can be found on the shared drive including:

• The recording sheets.
• The problem cards.
• The socially distanced/digital versions to speed up delivery (instead of needing to use the problem cards).
• The spreadsheet for data analysis.

Finally some good news and bad news… we’ve developed an electronic version of the knowledge diagnostic assessments which we’ve been trialling and amending over the last couple of years and it’s finally finished having gone through some extensive revisions.  The assessment allows you to test P4 pupils and above as a whole class at once and hugely speeds up delivery and data collection and the ability to analyse and use the data is much easier too.  We’ve started rolling out training for this with the schools that we are still working with but with no Development Officer in post I’m not sure how it will get out to other schools – if I find a way to make it easily available on the Shared Drive I’ll put it there in the future.