Cover up of illiteracy by Dept of Education?

patslatt

Once a year,the primary school system conducts exams on behalf of the Department of Education. As I understand it,these exams are multiple choice tests of literacy and numeracy.

The Department releases results of children to their parents.But why doesn't the Department disclose aggregated results by regions and by family income levels to inform the public? It is inviting suspicion that it is covering up poor results.

In the mid-1990s International Literacy Survey,Ireland scored poorly with a functional illiteracy rate of about 23%. Chances are results have improved since then with increased spending on both youth and adult education. Still,it would be instructive to know what the functional illiteracy rate is now in primary schools.

For example,if it turns out that functional illiteracy is over say 35% in socially deprived area primary schools of Ireland,that would prevent the government from brushing the problem under the carpet as in the past and increase pressure for remedial action.

As well,it could help to end complacency among the public if it were found as in England that a surprising number of regions not considered socially deprived performed poorly in tests.

corcaighcailin9

They are not released for the very simple reason it would create a league table system which is just wrong on so many levels and would also lead teachers to "teach to the test" which should never be the case. You've cited our nieghbours across the sea as an example and I'm doing the same - for different reasons.

patslatt

corcaighcailin9 wrote: »

They are not released for the very simple reason it would create a league table system which is just wrong on so many levels and would also lead teachers to "teach to the test" which should never be the case. You've cited our nieghbours across the sea as an example and I'm doing the same - for different reasons.

Releasing data by county,by major urban area and by family income based on census data is not a league table system,unless you think it is unfair to compare the performance of counties or of social groups classed by incomes. Are you afraid that people might move their children from Dublin to,say,Wicklow?

corcaighcailin9

No patslatt the movement of children from dublin to wicklow wouldn't concern me in the slightest, I don't know why you think it would. How can you say releasing results wouldn't be creating a league table system - of course it would. Parents trying to decide where to send their kids would think they were making an informed decision looking at past results without taking a number of factors into consideration, namely:
It must be remembered that these tests are stressful enough without adding the pressure whereby the kids know that the school's results would be freely available. As it is, a child would most likely never score the same result twice on the same test; there are so many factors to be considered on the day of a test. A child can underperform due to nerves or whatever and their test result might be in no way consistent with previous classroom tests.
The DES seems intent on going down the (arguably unsuccessful) English route by introducing standardised tests when the kids are just 7 years old. This is just insane. It's putting too much pressure on kids. They should be enjoying their primary school years - there's time enough for them to be weighed down with the pressure of state examinations in secondary school.

Anyway, with or without league tables, I can't see the value of releasing these results. I take it you're not a teacher?

patslatt

corcaighcailin9 wrote: »

No patslatt the movement of children from dublin to wicklow wouldn't concern me in the slightest, I don't know why you think it would. How can you say releasing results wouldn't be creating a league table system - of course it would. Parents trying to decide where to send their kids would think they were making an informed decision looking at past results without taking a number of factors into consideration, namely:
It must be remembered that these tests are stressful enough without adding the pressure whereby the kids know that the school's results would be freely available. As it is, a child would most likely never score the same result twice on the same test; there are so many factors to be considered on the day of a test. A child can underperform due to nerves or whatever and their test result might be in no way consistent with previous classroom tests.
The DES seems intent on going down the (arguably unsuccessful) English route by introducing standardised tests when the kids are just 7 years old. This is just insane. It's putting too much pressure on kids. They should be enjoying their primary school years - there's time enough for them to be weighed down with the pressure of state examinations in secondary school.

Anyway, with or without league tables, I can't see the value of releasing these results. I take it you're not a teacher?

I said that aggregated results should be released,which would allow analysis of results by income groups and geographic areas. That would preserve the anonymity of schools.

The English system tests too much. That not to say no testing should be done. Without some test data,the government would become complacent about illiteracy and teachers failing to use the proper methods for literacy instruction could continue doing their own failing thing.

If you think one exam a year is pressure,up to the 1980s children were regularly given nasty corporal punishments and bullied by teachers. In the 1930s and 1940s,children were often terrorised and occasionally injured physically by a not so small minority of sadistic teachers.

Essexboy

The Primary Certificate should be reinstated.
This was an externally verified exam which everyone in 6th Year of Primary School took but was abolished to please the INTO.
In the same way that an American leaving High School without graduating is ashamed, an Irish student leaving primary school, without a certificate should - with his/her school - be judged a failure.

corcaighcailin9

patslatt wrote: »

I said that aggregated results should be released,which would allow analysis of results by income groups and geographic areas. That would preserve the anonymity of schools.

The English system tests too much. That not to say no testing should be done. Without some test data,the government would become complacent about illiteracy and teachers failing to use the proper methods for literacy instruction could continue doing their own failing thing.

If you think one exam a year is pressure,up to the 1980s children were regularly given nasty corporal punishments and bullied by teachers. In the 1930s and 1940s,children were often terrorised and occasionally injured physically by a not so small minority of sadistic teachers.

On the aggregated results point, most schools have a wide variety of both income groups and geographical areas - take for example a city centre school so these would not be particularly effective.

I'm not even going to comment on your last point - why bring that into the equation? That's in the past.

I agree there needs to be accountability in order to weed out incompetent or complacent teachers but I think that assessing how teachers teach is a better way to do this than merely rely on testing the children.

Remember that any conscientious teacher - and there are lots of us out there - is constantly assessing their class and adapting their teaching methods according to the needs and learning styles of their students, whether they are in Junior Infants, 6th class or anywhere in between.