Using an Assessment of Early Mathematical Knowledge and Skills to Inform Policy and Practice: Examples from the Early Grade Mathematics Assessment

Abstract

This paper describes the development and intended uses of the Early Grades Mathematics Assessment (EGMA), which measures essential early mathematical knowledge and skills that are foundational to more sophisticated mathematical abilities, predictive of later achievement, and teachable. Administering the EGMA can provide policy makers, practitioners, and researchers with information about whether existing educational policies, curricular reforms or programs, and instructional interventions are supporting students in reaching important goals in mathematics. We highlight the utility of the EGMA results in three abbreviated illustrations of implementation studies in low-income countries. Recommendations for policy makers, practitioners, and researchers are provided. Accepted: 30 December 2015 Keywords Mathematics Educational policy International education Assessment IntroductionResearch across the globe has provided evidence on the predictive relationship of early mathematical knowledge and skills on later academic achievement and economic status. Similarly, there has been a growing understanding of the importance of these foundational skills in building and sustaining a democratic society as well as technological capacity at national levels. However, until recently, there have been few efforts to provide valid and reliable population-level assessments of early mathematical knowledge and skills. This manuscript reports on the development and intended uses of the Early Grades Mathematics Assessment (EGMA), an instrument that measures number sense knowledge and skills in the early primary grades. Through snapshots of three implementation studies, we illustrate how policy makers and practitioners can use the EGMA results to evaluate the effectiveness of educational policies, curricular reforms or programs, and instructional practices and interventions. This paper begins with overviews of research on the increasing importance of early mathematics proficiency and current mathematics assessment policies. We follow this with sections that cover the principles underlying the development of the EGMA including the content domains and assessment framework. We then illustrate the uses of the EGMA results through descriptions of three studies and conclude with recommendations for future research, development, and implementation of the EGMA. The Importance of Mathematics ProficiencyFor several decades, children's acquisition of basic reading skills has dominated discussions of interventions in early primary school (Snow, 2002;Thorndike, 1973;UNESCO, 2014). Evidence suggests that if children cannot read by third grade -the point in their education at which they are expected to read text to gain content knowledge in history, language arts, science, and mathematics -they will have difficulty attaining proficiency in reading as well as other content areas (Ball, Paris, & Govinda, 2014). The global response to the importance of reading has resulted in national and international efforts to develop educational policies, curricular refor...

Assessing the Impact of Early Learning Programs in Africa

“…In each of the programs, teachers were trained in informal and formal assessment of student progress; e.g., in Malawi, teachers monitored student learning by asking students to show a thumb up or down to reflect their understanding of the task, whereas in Kenya, curriculum support officers conducted ongoing monitoring checks of student reading levels. Project teams also worked with local experts to develop summative EGRAs and in some cases Early Grade Mathematics Assessments (EGMA; Platas, Ketterlin‐Geller & Sitabkhan, ), which can be used to measure system and program effectiveness and identify gaps in instruction and areas for support. The use of assessment data at all levels of the projects has been of critical importance in these contexts, allowing programs to draw attention to equity gaps, inform the (re)design of materials, and track and monitor progress.…”

Protocol for a cluster randomised trial in Madhya Pradesh, India: community health promotion and medical provision and impact on neonates (CHAMPION2); and support to rural India’s public education system and impact on numeracy and literacy scores (STRIPES2)

“…The primary outcome of STRIPES2 is the composite literacy and numeracy test score using the Early Grade Reading Assessment (EGRA) and the Early Grade Mathematics Assessment (EGMA), respectively [40][41][42].…”

Protocol for a cluster randomised trial in Madhya Pradesh, India: Community health promotion and medical provision and impact on neonates (CHAMPION2); and support to rural India’s public education system and impact on numeracy and literacy scores (STRIPES2)

“…Primary outcome: composite literacy and numeracy test score using Early Grade Reading Assessment (EGRA) and Early Grade Mathematics Assessment (EGMA), respectively [41][42][43].…”