The ERC is collaborating with the National Educational Psychological Service (NEPS) to extend the Post-Primary Assessment and Diagnosis-English (PPAD-E) standardised test of literacy in English beyond First Year, to Third Years. This pilot study will be done in Autumn 2024 and is being led by Catríona Martyn (Regional Co-ordinator, NEPS) and John Regan (ERC). At the ERC, Brenda Donohue oversees the study with input and support from Theresa Walsh.
Current and Future Developments
PPAD-E is currently available to all post-primary schools for use with First Years. The 2024 pilot aims to extend this to Third Years, with a view to establishing norms for other age and year groups The idea is to see whether the questions ‘work’ in the way we hoped. Following the pilot, data are analysed to see whether test questions are too difficult, too easy, and whether they do or do not provide us with useful information.
Contact: ppad-e@erc.ie
The need for PPAD-E
The PPAD-E has been developed by NEPS in direct response to needs identified by schools.
Currently, tests of English literacy in use in post-primary schools are typically tests with UK or US norms. These tests have a number of limitations, such as their high cost, cultural inappropriateness, limited utility/narrow focus, time consuming nature (many individually administered), poor ability to differentiate between very weak or very able readers, and inappropriate age ceilings.
NEPS psychologists, through their ongoing work in schools, are aware that schools want a tool which is cost-effective, easy to administer and score, and can be used for a range of purposes. The PPAD-E is intended to be used from First Year intake across the age-range in post-primary schools. It is a screening and diagnostic tool that assess literacy skills consisting of five subtests.
Design of the PPAD-E
The complete test package includes five subtests:
- Word reading
- Spelling
- Reading speed
- Reading comprehension
- Writing samples.
All but the Word Reading test are group-administered (Word Reading is individually administered). The assessment requires an hour to administer, plus 3-4 minutes per student for the Word Reading test.
Purposes and benefits of the PPAD-E
The purpose of this study is to pilot the PPAD-E with Third Years and refine procedures for administering and scoring it so that it can be used by teachers across all post-primary schools in Ireland.
The standardised test for First Years is:
- culturally appropriate and tailored to the Irish context
- designed for use by teachers
- accompanied by tools and materials that enable test administration, scoring and interpretation of test results for individual students
- linked to evidence-based interventions
- suitable for considering eligibility for an exemption from Irish
- helpful for screening for difficulties (particularly at first year intake)
- useful in diagnostic assessment, monitoring and evaluating progress
- helpful in providing data for RACE/DARE, and
- useful in establishing and reviewing standards.
Design of the PPAD-E pilot study
The ERC has drawn a nationally representative sample of 20 post-primary schools. In each selected school, one Third Year class is selected at random to take part (yielding approximately 600 participants). Teachers administer the assessment with support from other school staff during Q4, 2024. During the pilot study no results will be fed back to teachers or students.
GDPR
The work of NEPS and the ERC is supported by a Data Processor Agreement, with all appropriate information and safeguards under GDPR in place.
Click here for data protection information.
