It would doubtlessly be useful to raise questions on what children know and what they can do when they start school, and how much children learn in their first year at school. However in Russia there are few measures available to assess the initial level of a child starting school and their progress. That is why Russia has decided to join the international Performance Indicators in Primary Schools  (iPIPS) project.

iPIPS is a monitoring system that has been developed by the Centre for Evaluation and Monitoring (CEM) at the University of Durham, UK (Tymss, et al, 2014). The iPIPS instrument includes the cognitive part (vocabulary, phonological awareness, basic reading and math problems) and the non-cognitive part (measures of children personal, social and emotional development as well as behavior).

The paper describes the development and validation of the Russian version of the iPIPS instrument, both cognitive and non-cognitive parts, using representative regional data from two Russian regions. The total sample consists of 2741 first graders recruited from 57 schools.

The methods of IRT modelling were used for conducting data analysis, and the Dutch rating system COTAN was chosen as the basis for conducting the validity study (Evers, et al, 2010). This rating system follows the traditional three-category classification with respect to the purpose of the validity research. These categories are: construct validity, criterion validity and content validity. All these aspects were investigated.

The results provided evidence in validity of the Russian version of iPIPS for use with first graders to assess their cognitive and non-cognitive development when they start school, as well as when they finish the first grade. Also the possibility of using the Russian version for international comparative study was confirmed.

References

Tymms, P., Merrell, C., &Wildy, H. (2014). The progress of pupils in their first school year across classes and educational systems. British Educational Research Journal.

Evers, A., Sijtsma, K., Lucassen, W. and Meijer, R. R.(2010). The Dutch Review Process for Evaluating the Quality of Psychological Tests: History, Procedure, and Results. The International Journal of Testing, 10:4, 295 — 317.