CCHQ has just announced that "former Imperial College Rector Sir Richard Sykes to lead a commission into the future of testing, assessment, examinations and qualifications." The press release continues: "The inquiry will examine how to restore confidence in the exam system so that testing in schools and exam qualifications are rigorous, robust and relevant."
Shadow Children's Secretary Michael Gove issued this statement:
“Testing is important for measuring how individuals, schools and ministers are performing. The debacle over SATs this year has badly damaged the confidence of parents, teachers, universities and employers in the current system of testing. It is vital that we have a testing and examination system which enables our young people to compete with the best in the world. There is widespread concern that tests and exams are not rigorous, robust or relevant enough. I am delighted that Sir Richard has agreed to look into this whole area for us.”
Last week the Conservatives called on the Government to drop the firm contracted to mark SATS.
This is a massive issue. It was the only thing parents have been talking about at my children's school. I'm glad the always excellent Michael Gove is taking a lead.
Posted by: Jennifer Wells | July 21, 2008 at 12:48
SATS should never be "definitive". They should be combined with the teacher's assessment and used to confirm it.
My 11 year old got her results recently and we wondered about how reliable they were given the kerfuffle recently. The SATS agreed fairly well with her report so we decided that it was probably OK.
Having said all that, the company involved in this fiasco should be sacked. Their worldwide reputation seems to be very poor as well so this does not appear to be an isolated case.
The quality of exams is a separate issue and the decrease in quality is dramatic. I believe it is mostly caused by modular assessment and the fact that pupils can keep resubmitting the work until it grades satisfactorily. Also many kids simply crib stuff from the internet and hand it in. The advantage of the old "exam hall" system was that you could be sure the pupils worked in isolation and that what they wrote was what they knew.
Scrap continuous assessment!!!
Posted by: brian | July 21, 2008 at 13:10
Current party education policy is to set schools free and to allow budgets to follow pupils.
The logical conclusion of this policy, if it is not to be torpedoed by the educational establishment- as they have done with every attempt to reform education for the past 40+ years, is the abolition of centrally set SAT (or equivalent) tests and inspections. As long as you have central testing and control, it WILL stifle innovation and locally based solutions.
The current system believes that all pupils are potential rocket scientists and makes no allowance for the non academic who would benefit far more from vocational or practice based subjects that would never seek to go near a GCSE or A level.
Posted by: Stewart Geddes | July 21, 2008 at 13:21
'Quadruped. Graminivorous. Forty teeth, namely twenty-four grinders, four eye-teeth, and twelve incisive. Sheds coat in the spring; in marshy countries, sheds hoofs, too. Hoofs hard, but requiring to be shod with iron. Age known by marks in mouth.'
Thus, Dickens' ironic definition of a horse in Hard Times. Rather like our "educational" system today: the description seems to bear no relation to the actual entity. Children seem to be learning vast quantities of facts by rote without the faintest idea of how to link them together, apply them in the real world or analyse them methodically. Cramming 'facts, facts, facts' into our little pitchers leaves them ill-equipped to deal with the world and, because they've never been taught to think logically, will result in a far more ignorant, dumbed-down society. Bring back the 11+, for God's sake (we're not completely American yet) and teach children how to reason from cause to effect and vice versa!
Posted by: Mara MacSeoinin | July 21, 2008 at 13:50
Children seem to be learning vast quantities of facts by rote without the faintest idea of how to link them together, apply them in the real world or analyse them methodically.
...
for God's sake (we're not completely American yet) and teach children how to reason from cause to effect and vice versa!
Mara, the most positive change in education over the last 50 years has been a shift from rote learning to reasoned thinking. From what experience do you do you damn today’s teaching methods and curriculum?
Posted by: Mark Fulford | July 21, 2008 at 15:01
There is nothing wrong with continuous assessment per se; it is appropriate for some subjects and parts of subjects. However it should be based on work carried out in school and under supervision.
Posted by: Jack Holland | July 21, 2008 at 15:15
This is very important. The reaction to Ball's Newsnight interview has been one of lasting gobsmacked disgust - a man not only unable to administer, but seemingly unwilling to accept that its part of his job as a minister. It was a demonstration of a bizarre abdication of responsibility nearly two years before the electorate will relieve him of it. Mr Gove can ram this extraordinary abdication home by demonstrating that even though Balls is not willing to do the job for which he is paid, the Conservatives can and will.
Posted by: Michael Taylor | July 21, 2008 at 16:44
Mark, what's wrong with rote learning? One of the best things that happened to my younger daughter was returning her to the private sector where she had to learn her tables. Guess what: now that she has the basic building blocks committed to memory, she can actually better apply her powers of reasoning to mathematical concepts. Contrasting rote learning with reasoned thinking is an entirely false dichotomy: each requires the other and always did.
Posted by: Michael McGowan | July 21, 2008 at 16:49
And a quote from the Banksy book Wall and Peace, sums up whats wrong with education in this country, it goes "A lot of people don't use their inititive, because nobody told them too"
When the government create a culture of central control over common sense, then personality and ability get mislaid.
Posted by: alan phillips | July 21, 2008 at 17:46
In response to Mark Fulford:
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/pressass/20080721/tuk-focus-on-tests-limits-learning-6323e80.html; children are being 'taught the test' by rote whilst their other subjects suffer. Learning by rote may well be effective, as Mr McGowan points out; but only if that rote-learning is accompanied by the use of logic to link all those disparate facts together.
Too, I would be interested to know how those of our youth educated in the state system are being taught to 'reason'. Were this the case, more and more universities would not be introducing rigorous tests of their own designed to determine whether prospective entrants are capable of logical thinking. Given the large number of graduates who are barely literate, let alone employable in any meaningful capacity, it appears that that which they are taught in schools lacks fundamental logical bases, and that the A-Level is no longer a fair indicator of academic potential.
Posted by: Mara MacSeoinin | July 21, 2008 at 20:27
Please do my friend Michael Gove a favour and use a different picture for him!
Posted by: Goldie | July 21, 2008 at 23:10
...children are being 'taught the test' by rote whilst their other subjects suffer.
Mara, I think you know that you’re twisting the Chief Inspector’s words. Wouldn’t it be better to quickly admit that you got it wrong than to chase a lost argument?
"Teaching to the test" was a complaint about sticking narrowly to what will be tested and said nothing about how the teaching is done. Modern teaching is very much (too much, say Michael and I) about principles rather than facts.
For what it’s worth, on subjects where I had no interest and simply needed the piece of paper, I much prefered teachers who made it clear when they were on and off sylabus. Why would I want to become despondent over deponent verbs when I’m not even going to be tested on them?
Posted by: Mark Fulford | July 22, 2008 at 13:12