Can you help?

Hodder Education is updating and re-standardising the Salford Sentence Reading Test in September 2011. The new test will have three forms (A, B and C) and will include comprehension questions with each sentence to allow teachers to check comprehension as well as reading accuracy.

Hodder is also re-standardising the Basic Number Screening Test in March 2011 to get up-to-date norms and to link performance to National Curriculum Levels.

Why are you asking me?

Many schools who use Catch Up Literacy or Catch Up Numeracy are experienced in using the Salford and Basic Number Screening tests. Hodder has approached Catch Up as a way to invite schools already familiar with the tests to take part in these re-standardisation trials.

Note: To get norms applicable to the whole school population, Hodder needs to involve complete year groups (and preferably whole schools), not just the pupils who are receiving Catch Up support.

Which Year Groups are needed?

For the Salford, Hodder is seeking to involve Years 1 to 6 in primary, or Years 4 to 8 in middle schools, or Years 7 to 9 in secondary.

For the Basic Number Screening, Hodder needs to work with Years 2 to 6 in primary or Years 4 to 7 in middle schools.

What does the school get out of this?

• All of the test materials, including manuals, will be provided free.
  
• All the Number tests will be marked by the research team (unless you prefer to do this yourself).
  
• The schools will get back complete performance analyses of their data, in easy-to-use Excel formats.
  
• Class teachers, Literacy/Numeracy Coordinators and SENCOs will all gain helpful insights from this snapshot of performance across the school.
  
• Teaching assistants who administer the tests will get online training beforehand and be able to include this as evidence of CPD. (A helpline will also be available during the trials.)
  
• A 25% discount when purchasing any Hodder Assessment material during 2011–12.
  

What now?

The re-standardisation is being directed by Dr Colin McCarty. If you are interested in being involved in either or both of these projects, or if you wish to find out more before committing, please contact him at:

email: test_and_eval@btinternet.com
phone: 01638 669400 or 07970563166

Contact Dr McCarty ASAP for more information or to become involved in one or both of these important studies.