Baseline assessment in Scotland

Baseline assessment in Scotland has developed in a different context from the rest of the UK. Early in 1998, the Scottish Office Education and Industry Department launched a national framework which is now being piloted in a number of education authorities across the country. Meanwhile, authorities had developed schemes of baseline assessment to evaluate their programmes of early intervention in literacy. This study presents a survey of these schemes in all 32 Scottish education authorities, together with a description of the national scheme and a discussion of the main issues arising. Within the context of baseline assessment across the curriculum it provides a profile of an important but very diverse national literacy initiative.