Build a response
Research and theory have the potential to add significantly to the debate around standards. I thought it might be helpful to build a collective response based on some theoretical perspective. Below is my first offering to the pool. Perhaps others could offer some evidence or researched perspective to add weight to the gut feeling many of us have that league tables are a really bad idea.
Elliot Eisner (1995) warns us that ... "the language of standards is by and large a limiting rather than liberating language.... It distracts us from paying attention to the importance of building a culture of schooling that is genuinely intellectual in character, that values questions and ideas at least as much as getting right answers... The challenge in teaching is to provide the conditions that will foster the growth of those personal characteristics that are socially important and, at the same time, personally satisfying to the student. The aim of education is not to train an army that marches to the same drummer, at the same pace, towards the same destination. Such an aim may be appropriate for totalitarian societies, but it is incompatible with democratic ideals."
Eisner, E. 1995. Standards for American schools: Help or hindrance? Phi Delta Kappan, June 1995: 758-64
I have two main issues with national standards.
The first has been commented on by others already and that is the unintended consequences of publishing league tables of school results. Having worked in a school in the UK that was at the very bottom of the league table I can tell you the effect is destructive. Parents, pupils and staff all know that the school is not doing well. The teachers in year 6 spent the whole year teaching to the test. The curriculum, planning and teaching were all focused on SAT test results.
The second issue I have is with reporting to parents with words like "failing to meet the standard" or "below the standard". I have nothing against standards at all. It reasonable to want to know whether our children are doing OK compared with their peers. But I want to talk with parents about how much improvement has been made rather than whether they are failing to meet a standard. What will be the effect of telling a six year old boy he is failing as a reader. I think the unintended consequences at a personal level are even more dangerous than those that might occur at a school level. Certainly neither the individual nor the school will gain any positive benefit from any comparison at this level.
The Ministry of Education currently has the Education Review Office to assess school quality. What would happen if they spent the money earmarked for national standards on providing assistance to those schools that really are under performing? Models for professional development such as ICT clusters and EHSAS clusters have positive effects on schools. Why not expand these models that build cooperation rather than set schools against each other in a manner that league tables may well promote.
Elliot Eisner (1995) warns us that ... "the language of standards is by and large a limiting rather than liberating language.... It distracts us from paying attention to the importance of building a culture of schooling that is genuinely intellectual in character, that values questions and ideas at least as much as getting right answers... The challenge in teaching is to provide the conditions that will foster the growth of those personal characteristics that are socially important and, at the same time, personally satisfying to the student. The aim of education is not to train an army that marches to the same drummer, at the same pace, towards the same destination. Such an aim may be appropriate for totalitarian societies, but it is incompatible with democratic ideals."
Eisner, E. 1995. Standards for American schools: Help or hindrance? Phi Delta Kappan, June 1995: 758-64
I have two main issues with national standards.
The first has been commented on by others already and that is the unintended consequences of publishing league tables of school results. Having worked in a school in the UK that was at the very bottom of the league table I can tell you the effect is destructive. Parents, pupils and staff all know that the school is not doing well. The teachers in year 6 spent the whole year teaching to the test. The curriculum, planning and teaching were all focused on SAT test results.
The second issue I have is with reporting to parents with words like "failing to meet the standard" or "below the standard". I have nothing against standards at all. It reasonable to want to know whether our children are doing OK compared with their peers. But I want to talk with parents about how much improvement has been made rather than whether they are failing to meet a standard. What will be the effect of telling a six year old boy he is failing as a reader. I think the unintended consequences at a personal level are even more dangerous than those that might occur at a school level. Certainly neither the individual nor the school will gain any positive benefit from any comparison at this level.
The Ministry of Education currently has the Education Review Office to assess school quality. What would happen if they spent the money earmarked for national standards on providing assistance to those schools that really are under performing? Models for professional development such as ICT clusters and EHSAS clusters have positive effects on schools. Why not expand these models that build cooperation rather than set schools against each other in a manner that league tables may well promote.
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