National Curriculum Testing and Self‐esteem in Year 2 — the first 5 years: a cross‐sectional study

Abstract

This 5‐year cross‐sectional study measured the self‐esteem, reading and mathematical attainments of five cohorts of Year 2 children over the period of the introduction of the National Curriculum and assessment procedures into primary schools (the first two cohorts did not do the national tests; the other cohorts did). All Year 2 (N= 1058) and Year 6 (N= 998) children in six randomly selected primary schools within one Local Education Authority (LEA) comprised the sample to which the Lawseq questionnaire (Lawrence, 1982), Mathematics 7 (NFER, 1987a) and the Primary Reading Test (France, 1981) were administered. A two‐way analysis of variance on the Lawseq scores found a significant difference interaction between year‐group and cohort. Separate one‐way analysis of variance indicated no significant differences between cohorts in Year 6, but significant differences in Year 2. Subsequent analysis therefore focused on Year 2 children. Self‐esteem showed a downward trend throughout the first 4 years of the study and, although there was an increase in the mean in Year 5, it was still more than 1.5 below the means in Years 1 and 2. An analysis of variance showed there were significant differences between the year‐groups, with the last three cohorts’ scores being significantly lower than the first two cohorts’. Analyses of variance on the attainment scores resulted in no significant differences between the year‐groups. Although overall there were significant positive correlations between the Year 2 children's self‐esteem and all their attainment scores, however when the correlation coefficients were computed separately for the pre‐ and post‐national test groups differences emerged. There were no significant correlations for the pre‐national test cohorts, but for the post‐national test groups all the correlations were significant. Discussion centres on the possible link between national testing and the fall in self‐esteem.