The aim of this research was to evaluate the application of an inclusive education policy on screening, identification, assessment and support of learners (SIAS) policy at South African schools. The research explores how educators screen, identify, and assess barriers to learning as well as support learners with barriers. The variables on the…

Inclusion and equitable education, as articulated by the fourth sustainable development goal and anticipated by 2030 seems hard to attain in a context where teachers' practices are inconsistent with inclusive national policies. In the study reported on here we investigated South African teachers' experiences in implementing the screening,…

The teaching of reading has been a source of contentious debate for many years. Margaret Meek Spencer contributed her passion for the importance of specific texts to help children learn to read. In addition to the kinds of texts to be used, important aspects of the debate include the relationship between national curriculum policies and robust…

Many migrants have had few opportunities to develop functional literacy skills, even in their L1. Even so, migration and integration policies in Western host societies often assume literacy skills and fail to consider accommodations for low-literate migrants. Valid, reliable instruments to identify low-literate migrants and policy-oriented…

In this article, two government education policies for primary schools in England are scrutinised, the Phonics Screening Check and Baseline Assessment, both claimed by ministers to be 'evidence based'. What has become a high-stakes test rather than a diagnostic assessment, the Phonics Screening Check, introduced in 2012, now dominates early years…

This paper aims to present a critical analysis of the Year 1 Phonics Screening Check (PSC), with special focus on the relationship between the UK Department for Education's policy-making and the evidence considered in the process of developing and evaluating the PSC. The reports from the in-house Standards and Testing Agency and from commissioned…

This article examines the impact of a statutory assessment in England, the Phonics Screening Check (PSC), on classroom practices of grouping children by 'ability.' Bearing in mind the argument that assessment is the rudder that steers the otherwise slow-moving battleship of educational practice, it is argued that the PSC has altered how teachers…

The notion of inclusion has gained momentum worldwide, with most countries around the world embracing inclusive policies in their educational systems. However, there is still an ongoing debate as to what is inclusion and hence, the consequent challenge of coming up with an agreed definition, which could then be used to plan for and subsequently,…

The poverty-related attainment gap is an internationally recognised problem. There is growing recognition that it cannot either be understood or addressed without taking cognisance of children's mental health and wellbeing. The focus of this conceptual article is to examine the impact of social inequality and poverty on the mental health and…

This article compares the way the United States deals with its low-income gifted students with the methods Finland, Japan, and Singapore implement for these pupils. Four components of gifted education were used to compare these nations: the methods for identifying gifted students, each country's gifted education policy, the educational…

This article compares the way the United States deals with its low-income gifted students with the methods Finland, Japan, and Singapore implement for these pupils. Four components of gifted education were used to compare these nations: the methods for identifying gifted students, each country's gifted education policy, the educational…

This study examined the teaching competencies perceived by special needs education teachers to be essential for inclusive education. Entrenched in inclusive pedagogy, this descriptive study draws on a sample of 24 special needs education primary school teachers purposively drawn from Midlands educational province of Zimbabwe. Throughout the…

This study examines the existing policies and policy efforts in the field of gifted education in Turkey. A content analysis of the state policy documents and semistructured interviews with two policy actors were conducted to explore the strengths and weaknesses of the policies regarding the education of gifted children. The findings revealed…

Assessment of young children from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds holds the potential to provide important insights into learning. Two researchers investigated an Allied Health screening program that was conducted in three kindergartens in a disadvantaged area of outer Melbourne, Australia. Drawing on narrative inquiry…

Since coming to power in 2010, the UK Coalition government in power has implemented a range of reforms in relation to assessment at all stages of education in England. This paper focuses on two assessment reforms relating to children aged five and six years old, and considers their evolution from manifesto commitments to practice in classrooms.…