Category: League Tables and Testing

Is it time to ditch scripted lessons and heavily-packed curricula to focus on individual student growth?

This is the question posed by education expert Geoff Masters, in a new book called The Children We Leave Behind. He argues that age-based expectations are not serving all children well, while scripted lessons are failing teachers and students alike.

Masters, the former head of the Australian Council for Educational Research, asks how well children are served by a system in which two pupils in the same class can differ by six or more years of learning but are taught the same material.

He argues this system fails children at either end of the scale – those who are struggling and those who are unchallenged. He asks what if, instead of holding all pupils of the same age to the same learning expectations, we based expectations on where individuals are in their comprehension and individual growth.

“Too many students in our schools are being poorly served and left behind by machineries of schooling not fit for purpose,” Masters warns.

Continue reading “Standarised Tests and Scripted Lessons Are Failing Both Teachers and Students”

Recently published research has found that some schools have manipulated their NAPLAN results by withdrawing low-performing students from the tests. The tactic is designed to make a school’s results look better than it would otherwise. The study found that Independent private schools were twice as likely as public schools to withdraw low-performing students from the tests.

The study found that poorly performing schools are more likely to encourage parents of low-performing students to withdraw their children from NAPLAN tests as a way to boost their school results reported on the My School website.

Continue reading “Schools Found to be ‘Gaming’ Their NAPLAN Results”

A new research study shows that many schools in Australia are manipulating their published school NAPLAN results by encouraging parents of low achieving students to withdraw them from the tests.  The study shows that Independent schools resort to this practice more than other schools. It shows that Independent schools withdraw low-achieving students from NAPLAN at twice the rate  of public schools. The study said the evidence indicated that some Independent schools were attempting to “game” the system of reporting school results on the MY School website.

The study found that Independent schools “game” their NAPLAN results much more than public schools. It found that the withdrawal rate among low performing Independent schools was twice that of public schools. Manipulating school results by withdrawing students was less prevalent in Catholic schools.

Continue reading “Independent Private Schools Are the Biggest Rorters of NAPLAN Results”

The OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) has extraordinary status and influence. It is seen as the gold standard for assessing the performance of education systems, but it is a castle built on sand. New data published by the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) call into question the accuracy and reliability of PISA and its league tables of country results.

The new figures show that nearly three-quarters of Australian students didn’t fully try on the PISA 2018 tests. The ACER research found that “…the majority of Australian students (73%) indicated that they would have invested more effort if the PISA test counted towards their marks”.

Continue reading “Question Mark Over the Accuracy and Reliability of PISA Tests”

Test-based accountability has been a key education policy in most OECD countries, including Australia, for many years. It was believed that publication of school test results would put pressure on schools and teachers to increase student achievement. A new OECD study shows this policy is an abject failure. It found no evidence that test-based accountability has affected education outcomes in higher income countries.

Our results suggest that across most OECD countries test-based accountability does not relate to academic achievement, nor has a substantial impact on educational inequality for the subject of mathematics. With some small variations we achieved similar results for the subjects of reading and science. [p. 25]

The findings have important implications for policy makers in higher income countries:

Continue reading “OECD Says Publication of School Results Has Failed to Improve School Performance”

The international PISA tests have become “false idols of educational excellence for the world to worship”. They have extraordinary status and influence. Education systems and even nations are judged by test scores and rankings that are assumed to be accurate measures of achievement. A primary assumption is that all students always try their best. A growing literature shows this to be false.

The OECD report on PISA 2018 found that over two-thirds of students in the OECD did not fully try on the tests. Eighty per cent of students in Germany did not fully try as did 79% of students in Denmark and Canada and 78% in Switzerland. Some 73% of Australian and New Zealand students did not fully try. In contrast, 46% of Korean students and 60% of Japanese students did not fully try. This variation calls into question the validity of league tables of countries based on PISA results.

Continue reading “Beware False Idols of Education Excellence”

One factor not considered in the commotion over the continuing decline in Australia’s PISA results is whether students try their best on the tests. The OECD’s own report on PISA 2018 shows that about three in four Australian students and two-thirds of students in OECD countries did not try their hardest on the tests. There are also wide differences between countries. It has potentially explosive implications for the validity of international comparisons of student achievement based on PISA.

The PISA data also shows increasing student dissatisfaction with school which likely contributes to lack of effort on tests and is a factor, among others, behind Australia’s declining results. There is also a perplexing contradiction between Australia’s declining PISA results and its improving Year 12 results. Lack of effort in PISA may partly explain this because performance on PISA has no consequences for students as they don’t even get their individual results. In contrast, Year 12 outcomes affect the life chances of students and even students dissatisfied with school have greater incentive to try harder. The fact that Australia’s Year 12 results have improved significantly since the early 2000s raises further questions about the reliability of the PISA results.

Continue reading “OECD Says 3 in 4 Australian Students Do Not Try on PISA Tests”

A US high school student takes issue with standardised tests.

Continue reading “A Poem on the Ravages of Standardised Tests”

How often have we all sat through those frustrating meetings where someone from head office or a university articulates with such commitment the first lie – if you can’t measure it then it’s not worth doing.  This quantification of education based on an economically rational approach started in the sixties.  This was the dawn of outcomes-based learning. 

Continue reading “The Dishonourable Lie”