Research and Projects

The Primary Language Record is a system of record-keeping in language and literacy which enables teachers to collect detailed observations about children's progress and development. It is a sophisticated system of informal assessment which has attracted international interest.

The history of the PLR
For many years CLPE pioneered approaches to formative assessment, creating The Primary Language Record (PLR) and The Primary Learning Record (PleR). These assessment tools were developed with large numbers of teachers working in multilingual inner London primary schools.

Developed in 1985-87 at CLPE in London, the PLR was almost immediately recommended by the Cox Committee, which developed the English National Curriculum, as a model for a national system of record-keeping. It went on to influence language and literacy records in all parts of the UK and become an accepted means of assessment for the English National Curriculum. Still in use in some schools in London, despite multiple changes in the English educational system, it is also used in some schools in the USA, Canada, and elsewhere. In the USA, as well as influencing assessment practice in some states, it has been further developed by the Center for Language and Learning in California, where it is now known as the Learning Record. It is also used as a means of assessment in the University of Austen, Texas (link), and in other universities in the USA. http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/%7Esyverson/olr/contents.html

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Features of the PLR
The particular features of the Primary Language Record which recommend it to users in such widely differing systems are:
•	Its grounding in a coherent theory of children's language and literacy development. This theory draws on a wide range of international research and is set out clearly in the Primary Language Record Handbook accompanying the Record, which has sold more than 100,000 copies in the UK, USA and Canada
•	The possibility the PLR offers for recognising and documenting children's very different learning styles within common frameworks
•	The clear recognition that the PLR gives to cultural and linguistic diversity, and its systematic inclusion of children's first languages in the documentation of their linguistic progress
•	The fact that parents and children's views are included in the PLR, and that it promotes meaningful parental involvement in children's education
•	The potential that the PLR offers for structuring portfolio assessment, and providing information about children's progress for teachers, parents, and wider audiences
•	The value of the PLR in staff development, and the framework it offers for teacher education and professional development, as well as for the observation of children

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Reading and Writing scales and Stages of English
The PLR is accompanied by four five-point scales, two in reading and two in writing, which enable teachers to assess and monitor children's progress in the primary/elementary school. These scales have all been the subject of validation studies. The PLR also includes the Stages of English Learning (copyright Hilary Hester) which enable teachers to assess and monitor the progress of bilingual children learning English.

The Primary Learning Record
In 1990 the principles behind the Primary Language Record were extended across the curriculum and a Primary Learning Record was developed in partnership with teachers and curriculum specialists from inner London. This new record reflected the requirements of the National Curriculum and focused particularly on observing and recording children's progress in English, Maths and Science. It was accompanied by a teachers' Guide.

The PLR as a means of improving teaching
The PLR has been the subject of an international seminar in New York where groups from New York, California and London met to share experiences and plan future work. The users of the PLR agree that it seems capable of informing and improving instruction. It allows children's normal literacy behaviour to be assessed in favourable contexts, and their home literacies to be recognised in schools, and thus provides a more rounded and qualitative picture of their achievements.