1.
The ‘system’ is unreliable because all schools interpret national standards
differently. At Limehills we have the very highest of expectations. Locally,
regionally and nationally, however, the data is not valid. It has not been
moderated and interpretations vary.
2.
Parents may choose to base decisions about where to school their children based
on this flawed data. This makes it very high stakes. Some schools will work
hard to improve national standards results at the cost of educating the whole
child – key competencies, sport, the Arts, Science may be neglected. This has happened elsewhere. Higher 'pass' rates does not mean a better primary school education! The government may get what it chooses to measure,
but at what cost?
3.
NZ outperforms every country that has adopted national tests and league tables. Until
recently, these countries were looking to develop curriculums like NZ’s because
their systems had failed to produce creative, flexible, self managing lifelong learners that 21st century living demands - even though their content based
assessments showed improving test scores over time.
4.
Standardising education makes it boring. Obsessive literacy and numeracy teaching
will turn students off school. At Limehills, we work hard to develop a
vibrant, hands on curriculum, based on a strong foundation of literacy and
numeracy, but not strangled by them and not at the expense of other areas of
the curriculum.
No comments:
Post a Comment