MCS – Age 7 – National Foundation for Education Research (NFER) Progress in Maths (adapted)

The Millennium Cohort Study (MCS) assessed their cohort members (CMs) during the study’s age 7 sweep using the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) Progress in Maths (adapted) measure.

Details on this measure and the data collected from the CMs are outlined in the table below.

Year of data collection:	2008
Domain:	Mathematical skills and knowledge
Measures:	Adaptation of the Progress in Maths 7 (PiM) test which was developed to assess mathematical ability. The child’s mathematical skills and knowledge are tested by asking 20 questions covering topics such as numbers, shapes, measurement and data handling.
CHC:	Gq (Quantitative Knowledge)
CLOSER source:	Explore this sweep in CLOSER Discovery: MCS Age 7 Survey (2008).
Administrative method:	Home interviewer, face to face; verbal and child responds using pen and paper
Procedure:	The test is read aloud to the child and they are asked to complete a series of calculations in a paper and pencil exercise.
	The test was adapted from the NFER Progress in Maths test (Cres Fernandes, NFER). All CM’s had to complete an initial test and based on their score they were routed to an easier, medium or harder section. An item response scaling method (Rasch) was used to scale the results of the easy, medium and hard subtest scores to the equivalent original raw scores.
Link to questionnaire:	https://cls.ucl.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/mcs4_cog_phys_documentation.pdf (opens in new tab)
Scoring:	Items 1 – 7 completed by all; then routed into easier, medium and harder. Items 2, 3, 4,13 and 17 all scored 2 points, all other items scored 1 point.
Item-level variable(s):	DMSCRE01- DMSCRE20 (items)
	DCMT_1_7 – DCMSCR_HRD (totals by sections e.g. 1-7 items)
Total score/derived variable(s):	DCMTOTSCOR (raw score)
	DCMATHS7SC (ability adjusted)
	DCMATHS7SA (ability and age adjusted – look up tables 2004)
Age of participant (months):	Mean = 86.74, SD = 2.98, Range = 76 – 98
Descriptives:		DCMTOTSCOR	DCMATHS7SC	DCMATHS7SA
		(raw score)	(ability adjusted)	(ability and age adjusted)
	N	13,756	13,756	13,756
	Range	0 – 15	0 – 28	69 – 136
	Mean	9.58	18.38	97.65
	SD	2.84	5.84	15.72
		(click image to enlarge)	(click image to enlarge)	(click image to enlarge)
Other sweep and/or cohort:	None
Source:	Adapted version specifically for MCS (by Cres Fernandes) of NFER Progress in Maths test which is aimed for 7-year-olds and was originally developed and nationally UK standardised in 2004.
Technical resources:	Chaplin Gray, J., Gatenby, R., Simmonds, N., & Huang, Y. (2010). Millennium Cohort Study Sweep 4: Technical Report (Second Edition). London: NatCen
	Connelly, R. (2013). Interpreting Test Scores. Millennium Cohort Study Data Note 2013/01. London: Centre for Longitudinal Studies.
Example articles:	Jones, E & Schoon, I. (2010). Cognitive development. In Hansen, K, Jones, E, Joshi, H and Budge, D (ed), Millennium Cohort Study Fourth Survey: A User’s Guide to Initial Findings. London: Centre for Longitudinal Studies.
	Campbell, T. (2015). Stereotyped at seven? Biases in teacher judgement of pupils’ ability and attainment. Journal of Social Policy, 44(3), 517-547.