Firstly, Merry Christmas! Hope you all well, and recovering from the masses of chocolate, turkey, and wine that comes with our beloved holiday season!
Right down to business, I thought I'd blog once more this year in between that black out week between Christmas and New Years! I can never recall what day of the week it is, during this time! I've been reminded half a dozen times that it's Saturday! Shocker I know!
Right, so I decided to end the year a big issue that surrounded Education over the Summer break, when Education Minister Ed Balls scrapped Key Stage 3 SATS test! Now any UK reader, will of course with mention of SATS only speak of them with dread and bad memoirs! I hated the SATS tests, being assessed at 14! What a JOKE! Furthermore I was assessed at 7 and 11 years of age! Makes you wonder why I wish to become a teacher!
My opinion of SATS, they were always a bad idea! And although Ed Balls, did the right thing of scrapping them in England (they've already been scrapped in Wales.) His reasons behind scrapping them were totally wrong! If he had come out and decided they were useless, unfair and put young people under intense stress, then fair enough! (Warning: This Blog might become a little political; but I'll tell you I am and always will be a Labour Party Voter. I might not fully agree with New Labour, but better the devil you know, then the devil you don't.) Ed Balls decided to scrap them because of the ballooning administrative costs and the fact the company were an absolute joke! Outsourcing test markers?? Surely, a line to far?
So what might we have in replace of the dreaded SATS in England? Single level testing? Well, that's just the SATS tests tarted up for the 21st Century. Plus in many SATS papers, the Papers cover many levels. If you fail a single level paper, which you can do! Then you won't receive a level! Quite a scary prospect, if you're thrown into a level 5 or 6 single level paper!
No, no, no! Single level testing? Bad, bad idea! A paper like that will surely ramp up the pressure on a child. Plus there is no chance of showing a cascade of achievement. And of course, Exams are one-off events, like Cup Finals! If you show up not at 100% then, that could make all the difference between a level 5 or 6. And could furthermore, put you at a disadvantage when taking your GCSE's. The most important thing in a 14-16 year old's mind!
So, what can we possible replace them with? Modular Exams? Well no, again! It's a hard for an Undergraduate to revise for a University module they might have only had 10 hours access to! Surely, the same might apply to a teenager!
Coursework? Hmmm....Maybe! But in many studies Coursework favours Girls then Boys, and well...let's not talk about the Girl/Boy divide at the moment in Education! Surely, that's for another time!
To me, the answer is "Continual Assessment." No one-off exams, Or two/three week projects. But setting and asking children to complete tasks as homework/classwork. And marking the work throughout the year, and give a level at the end of the year based on the averages. Yeah, ok! I admit, not perfect! But then Education is the pursuit of Perfection! Over the course of a year, no one knows a pupil better then his/her teacher! Not an external marker 100's of 100's of miles away sitting in a study over the summer, listening to Radio 4!
Continual Assessment! Simple, cheap and effective! Or is it far too much like common sense for those in the "know" to take on board!
Ah well, Rant Over!
Happy New Year, See you in 2009!
Peter,
-x-
1 comment:
ED Balls? This sort of relates to that 'discussion' we had about methods of assessing everyone equally.
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