Over-Tested and Under-Taught: The Strange State of the Present-Day Schoolchild
Civitas, 3 March 2009
A strange combination of maladies currently afflicts England’s state schools. On the one hand, recent obsession with ‘examination results’ has led many to morph into soulless ‘boot camps’, simply drilling pupils to pass tests, in the memorable image recently coined by Nick Dorey, chairman of the Society of Headmasters and Headmistresses.
On the other hand, many have ceased to impart even the most rudimentary numeracy and literacy, as revealed by the high failure rates obtained in trial of tests in these ‘functional skills’ to be added from next year to the English and maths GCSE papers.
As from 2010, children will no longer be able to obtain a grade C or better in GCSE English or maths unless they have passed the relevant tests in these functional skills. When it was trialled last year, only a third of those who sat the maths test passed it.
In the case of the test in English, results obtained in the trials were better, but still revealed that far too many children are leaving school without having acquired basic literacy. Whilst 63 per cent of those taking GCSE English last year gained a grade of C or better, on the three occasions it was trialled last, the pass rates for the English test were 66, 41 and 57.
Changes in schooling are needed, both to free them from their obsession with tests and to allow some life and joy back into class-rooms. At the same time, they need to ensure that basic numeracy and literacy are acquired by all children as a matter of course. These may seem incompatible objectives, but they are not. Both could be simultaneously achieved were teachers more punctilious about correcting misspelling and grammatical and punctuation errors, and were lessons and work assignments enabled to become more exciting and inspiring by no longer being so relentlessly driven by the need to prepare pupils for tests.
where’s the evidence that backs up the need to start formal phonics and numeracy work aged 4? We are the only country in Europe to do so. My son started school at 6. The council would not let us leave him be between the ages of 4 and 6 so we had to go private. It was very hard to go against the flow but we did. He started formal school aged 6.5 and after 1.5 terms of school is now alongside his peers in all competencies. He spent his years aged 4 and 5 in joyful play. Its a case study of 1 but there are many more I talk to – not so brave who just know that there children did or are doing too much too young. I think joy is being hammered out of childhood at a very early age. Check my blog for more.
If pupils are apparently spending much of their time doing numeracy and literacy but leave school unable to read, write legibly or do simple arithmetic, what is going on?
Residuals – how well each child does with a particular teacher compared with the average of how well they do with all other teachers – are often used in some schools to rate a teacher’s pay. This dictates a particular style of teaching which seems to work for C/D bordeliners in classes where behaviour is improved with reassuring fact-telling in order to pass exams that get easier each year. It ignores the requirement to inspire, stimulate and expand on a subject which impacts on whether pupils continue with it post-16 (reference the shortage of take up of STEM subjects). This style of teaching requires no cognitive development (reference the CASE project in Science – Adey Shayer and Yates, which does) and therefore leaves major gaps in pupil’s ability and understanding of the subject they are being taught, and also in particular a lack of any capacity, or need, to start thinking for themselves (which is key to a pupils progress in any subject).
This was summed up by a quote from our last headteacher who did use residuals in this way (the next one ignored them – to his peril?): ‘There is no place for fun at ___ _____ School’. Only the high quality of the teachers prevented it becoming ‘just an exam factory’.