This preliminary analysis is part of the baseline phase of a longitudinal study designed to investigate the professional development of primary and secondary teachers across England. The study addresses four key research areas. The prevailing models of professional development for teachers in England are identified in this baseline phase and the scene is set for the remaining areas of investigation to be addressed (annual data collection sweeps will continue).

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Peter Tymms has written recently (BERJ, August 2004) on the subject of measuring whether standards are rising in English and mathematics in primary schools based on pupil outcomes from national end of key stage tests. This article takes the position that the performance data debate is an interesting one but peripheral to a far bigger issue. Whether measurable (by standardised testing at ages 7 and 11) national standards in English and mathematics have risen or not, does not justify the drastic reduction of the intended ‘broad and balanced’ curriculum which has taken place to try to achieve the national percentage targets. The curriculum data on which the authors base their findings are supplied by the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority's own longitudinal monitoring of the school curriculum which has been carried out by the authors from 1996 to 2004.

The paper focuses on the auditing and accountancy paradigm that has dominated educational measurement of pupil performance for the last 20 years in England. The advocates of this minimum competency paradigm do not take account of the results of its dominance. These results include ignoring the heterogeneous complexity of groups within societies that exist now internationally and the reduction in pedagogy and curriculum experience to a 'one-size-fits-all' model of teaching concentrated on the tested subjects. This is complemented by the 'recitation script' style of pedagogy in schools based on coverage, delivery, completion and measurement rather than interpretation and analysis to support the complexity and diversity of individual learning needs.

This article relates a child's development in story writing and the progress that she made in achieving text cohesion, spelling development and ideation through the collaborative process. The case study investigates the integration of major aspects of writing development such as collaboration, the importance of peer interactions through social learning and the fusion of illustrations and writing to assist children's communication and understanding. The authors examine the rationale for the inclusion of collaborative peer-assisted writing and peer interaction as a social writing process, supporting the young writer's affective domain. The case study investigates the integration of major aspects of writing development such as collaboration, the importance of peer interactions through social learning and the fusion of illustrations and writing to assist children's communication and understanding. The authors examine the rationale for the inclusion of collaborative peer-assisted writing and peer interaction as a social writing process, supporting the young writer's affective domain development. The strengths and complexities of peer interaction, the role of illustrations and their positive impact on composition are discussed.

Using longitudinal curriculum data which they have collected over a ten year period from a nationally representative sample of primary schools (funded by grants from the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority), the authors report on evidence of changing models of subject provision within the primary curriculum. The period 1997–2007 has evidenced a range of government interventions with implications for subject teaching and data enable the analysis and discussion of the impact of these interventions on the ways in which sample schools have organised and planned their curriculum.

Research has suggested that inappropriate or misfitting response patterns may have detrimental effects on the quality and validity of measurement. It has been suggested that factors like language and ethnic background are related to the generation of misfitting response patterns, but the empirical research on this is rather poor. This research analyzes data from three testing cycles of the National Curriculum tests in mathematics in England using the Rasch model. It was found that pupils having English as an additional language and pupils belonging to ethnic minorities are significantly more likely to generate aberrant response patterns. However, within the groups of pupils belonging to ethnic minorities, those who speak English as an additional language are not significantly more likely to generate misfitting response patterns. This may indicate that the ethnic background effect is more significant than the effect of the first language spoken. The results suggest that pupils having English as an additional language and pupils belonging to ethnic minorities are mismeasured significantly more than the remainder of pupils by taking the mathematics National Curriculum tests. More research is needed to generalize the results to other subjects and contexts.