England- heads, teachers, parents reject tests and league tables

[PPOV]

We always follow the US and Britain with their educational experiments. If only we could avoid the same disasters by learning from their experiences.

"The death knell for national curriculum tests was sounded by head teachers yesterday as they warned all preparatory work would cease in schools from September.
They added that industrial action would continue year after year until the tests – taken by 1.2 million seven and 11-year-olds a year – and primary school league tables were scrapped."

High stakes national testing, league tables, transparency etc, etc...read the full article.

Link

[MORRIE]

This link might work:

Head teachers in the UK set to axe school tables

[PPOV]

Thanks, Morrie, fixed it.

[MORRIE]

PPOV,

Should there be a national based test on fundamental reading, writing and numeracy literacy? I agree as there should be some measure of accountability for the federal government funding of education in Australia.

Having had a good look at the 2008 Naplan tests on the NAPLAN website, it seems to me that the tests are more directed to the creation of a national curriculum rather than being a diagnostic tool for schools, albeit the diagnostic component is very important.

As to useful information for parents and students, I think the info provided is NOT useful in that the performance of the students on the day of the test varies due to many factors [ie lawn mower operating near the testing room] and not all students have had the same learning experiences to prepare them for the tests. However, if the performance of my child was less than my expectation, I would be concerned and could only be so because of the results provided from the Naplan testing.

Somewhat like if the coach of my son's soccer team tells me my son is a 'star striker' yet when he plays in the regional 'round robbin' tournament I see he is not so good. I would ask the coach if there was something extrodinary that happened during the tournament to explain why my son did not perform as well as I was led to expect.

To cut a potentially longer story shorter, is national testing required or should we require parents to be more involved in the learning of their children? I think the ultimate answer involves both.

[MORRIE]

Ooops.. 'extraordinary' and not 'extrodinary'.

[Christine Kelly]

'Heads set to axe school tables' brings to mind a visual of all these demented teachers ,pushed too far, running around splintering school desks in a scene of pure mayhem!