A Sat too far ...
I have always had a high regard for Ken Boston, the head of the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, but it appears that someone has fed him the wrong information. How can he say categorically that ... the current position is that in Key Stage 2the marking is now 100% complete ... when it so obviously isn't? Newspapers and media agencies up and down England are find this out and today the BBC report yet again on the failure to get the thing sorted.
This all indicates a mess but what worries me even more is the reaction of head teachers up and down the country who have used it as a rallying cry for something I don't understand.
The children have put their heart and soul into this. That's what hurts. I've had to speak to the children this morning to tell them nothing has come back. said one headteacher in the BBC report.
Sats are not fit for purpose and educationalists have been saying this for long enough now for someone, surely, to listen. This latest problem is just that - a problem. It has nothing whatsoever to do with the fact that we should have stopped testing children in this way some time ago and simply haven't.
The fact that heads, teachers, parents and the media have used it as a rallying cry for something or other is strange. None of this is going to materially damage children, teachers, schools or education as we know it ( pity in some ways really, it could have initiated a period of great change). The educational effect will be an absolute minimum and systems that have been developed just to satisfy the beast of Sats have, at best, had there time and effort misplaces and at worst could be accused of missing the point of education itself.
As I have said before, several times, time to stop this. Let's not get sidetracked by a company that has failed to deliver on its contract ( to collect, mark and return) let's concentrate on the real issue. Sats must go !
posted by Doug @ 06:37
2 Comments
2 Comments:
Hmm. But they have put their heart and soul into it. Many schools have been practicing for months don't forget. It's been the reason d'etre for an entire years teaching in many schools. We are judged by them, the children, the staff and the school. The Government is convinced they are a good idea, no matter what educationalists say or writers or who ever else has a criticism, that's clear. No one has broken ranks on this one even if they might do privately.
I think it is quite damaging to think that someone can't be bothered to mark the test you have worked hard for. It's a lack of consistency that leads to disaffection.
But as you say they are not fit for purpose but you can't tell that to children who are being forced through the hoops.
... and I know that they have put their heart and soul into it and that is what makes it so, so wrong. Surely it would be so much better to encourage them to put their heart and soul into something really personally creative.
The fact that The Government thinks that it is a good idea holds no sway with me. It is, in my opinion, a not too clever political invective. If you tell people often enought that this is what they want and need they actually start to believe it.
I totally agree that it is entirely unfair to children and teachers in this context that the system has let them down but this masks the real fact that it wasn't worth it in the first place ... and how do you tell that to children who you have convinced that it is important?
Where does professional honesty sit here and when will it all stop?
And I just can't understand why no one has 'broken ranks' ...
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