Raising the stakes on the outcomes of literacy and numeracy national testing, so that schools were judged publicly on the collective performance of students, would undermine the important role of these tests in diagnosing learning issues. Schools would be under pressure to spend valuable curriculum time preparing students to maximise results. Teaching to the test, rather than testing in order to teach, would undermine educational outcomes.
So writes John Kaye, Greens MP in Upper House of the NSW Parliament, in the Sydney Morning Herald today (no, I am not sponsored by them!!). The government recently tried to pass new legislation to allow publication of school performance in national testing. (Still not sure if they succeeded).
He makes some good points. One being that the tests are not designed for the purpose of creating “league tables” where school testing results are published on a national website available to the public. The government argues that they are not creating league tables, rather they are providing information about “like schools” with similiar SES (socio-economic status).
Who is right?
We do need to heed the lessons from the UK. It seems that league tables created a punitive culture whereby schools were “named and shamed” but for what end?
The focus should be on how we can continue to do things better – professional development, focus on teacher quality, meeting equity challenges – to improve student learning.
However, will publication of school results on a national website achieve this?
Let’s hope that the National Partnership Agreements i.e Literacy and Numeracy, Low SES and Teacher Quality do take the focus away from ‘league tables’ and the comparison of schools and emphasise the crucial role of effective teaching, whole school engagement in literacy and numeracy and professional development in improving student learning.