by Richard Garner
Education Editor
The Government's decision to abolish tests for 14-year-olds has been welcomed by almost everyone as a good way of reducing the testing burden on pupils - the only small note of dissent has come from some teachers who believe their workload will increase through a move to teacher assessment. They should get real. They won't have to teach to the test - and they should only be doing what they were before the whole key stage three apparatus was thrust upon them.
There is more dissent over the decision to stick with key stage two tests for 11-year-olds being externally marked. It is right that there should be an extenal check on primary school performance and how pupils are doing before they enter secondary school. That having been said, it would help secondary schools if the tests were taken earlier. The Welsh even do tests at the end of year five - so any corrective education can take place before the youngsters start secondary school.
Finally, to reduce the temptation to teach to the test, we should maybe abolish league tables - and give the parents the right to access test results of schools in their area and insist that individual schools publish their results. That way, even if some intrepid education journalist did decide it was worth their while to collect them all and publish their own league table, it would not have the Government's fingerprints on it and thus avoid raising the stakes of the tests.
If the teaching so-called "profession" were actually professional, meaning they stood up for ethical practice in the face of pressure, then they would not "teach to the test" so much. And because they are not professional they cannot be entrusted with children's education without external checks. So we need Ofsted, league tables, SATS, imperfect as they all are, because the alternative is to entrust our children to schools without any check on whether they are actually being educated. I will believe teaching is a profession when some head teachers close their schools to protect the majority of children from young thugs they are forced to admit, and until disruptive children are removed permanently, and not just to the next school down the road. Being professional means standing up to political pressure, even if it costs you your job. To be positive, we need you to do this to force the government to deal with those children who are disruptive and a sometimes a danger to other children. You might at the same time insist on having the resources properly to support children with special needs. When we see you doing these things, then maybe we might risk a bit less external checking on what you are doing.
Posted by: Anonymous | Thursday, 16 October 2008 at 11:02 PM
'Anonymous' is absolutely right, without standardised testing that compares children across the country (and with other countries), teachers will not be held accountable and parents will have no reliable measure of school effectiveness - children with special needs and summer borns urgently need to be helped much earlier. However, Ofsted's new regime is completely toothless. Nowadays one inspector visits for one day, regardless of the size of the school. He/she analyses Raise Online (a database with latest test results and trends, and an index relating to social factors, but with no gender/sub level test information over the years) which can be tinkered with by schools, together with the school's self evaluation. The inspector does what is referred to as a 'learning walk' which is an accompanied walk with a member of the senior management team, from classroom to classroom (all in the same day) and nothing is looked into in depth. There is no check on the school finances and subjects are given a cursory glance. The number of primary schools this year being judged as 'outstanding' has shot up - I suspect for financial reasons as they will not be inspected again for six yeas. Gone are the days when each teacher was inspected properly and given written and verbal feedback on their performance or the effectiveness of senior managers questioned in depth. Weak teachers are now sitting comfortably in the system and our children are suffering.
Posted by: 'anonymous2' | Friday, 17 October 2008 at 07:38 AM