New Progress in Reading Assessment (PiRA) for Scotland
The New Progress in Reading Assessment (PiRA) for Scotland is a revised form of the PiRA. It is a standardised, curriculum-linked series of tests designed initially for whole-class use with pupils of all abilities in Scotland.
The PiRA identifies gaps in learning and generates tailored interventions to inform future teaching. Tailored to work alongside the Scottish Curriculum for Excellence, the PiRA identifies pupil strengths and weaknesses and helps teachers to access ‘next steps’ intervention activities. It can predict the performance of P1 to P7 pupils using data collected from thousands of children.
Age range
P1 to P7. Designed to link with the Scotland Curriculum for Excellence.
Who can use it?
Teachers or anyone working in an educational setting.
How is it used?
Three termly assessment papers from summer term of P1 – P7 are used to identify strengths and weaknesses of pupils from term to term. Strands reflect the Scottish literacy benchmarks: Understanding, Analysis and Evaluation and Tools for reading. Enables reporting that aligns with the terminology used in the Scottish Curriculum for Excellence’s literacy benchmarks, allowing quick follow-up actions based on outcomes.
The tests are simple and quick to administer, taking 30–40 minutes. Pupils can take the tests digitally, with instant marking and reporting, using PiRA Digital Interactive. There is a video tutorial at the start of each test to help children become familiar with the online format.
What can it tell us?
The PiRA can digitally generate individual progress predictions and individual reports. A new assessment and reporting kit, My Access and Reporting Kit (MARK), identifies specific gaps in knowledge based on pupil performance in PiRA and suggests learning sequences to address these. Each learning sequence for reading includes step-by-step teaching notes, text extracts and questions, as well as modelling software to take pupils through the skills they need. Additional intervention activities will be available online in 2021.
Pros
- A well standardised assessment.
- Recent and up-to-date test specifically related to Scottish curriculum.
- Good informative charts produced.
- Links to Reading Planet reading books.
Cons
- It is a group test often used by schools for screening, so a deaf pupil may have already taken it as a regular class test.
- Expensive for small numbers of children as different test papers are needed for each year group.
Is there a cost?
Yes.