Is Michael Gove right to praise externally marked exams as the route to “rigour”? The most “rigorous” research shows he’s wrong! Great Big Ideas: Free Course Features Top Thinkers Tackling the World’s Most Important Ideas. A postscript on KS4 Reform. Pondering the KS4 Reform consultation again last night, after listening to Stephen Twigg deliver the Caroline Benn Memorial Lecture, I decided to phone the DFE to ask a few more questions.
Apart from anything else, I would like to be able to raise the consultation at the two governing bodies of which I am a member and several issues are by no means clear. My key questions were. will GCSEs in the subjects that are not to be re-branded as EBCs in 2015 ( English, mathematics and science) continue after that datewill GCSEs in the subjects that are not to be re-branded EBCs in 2017 ( history, geography and languages) continue after that date. The reason for this question is that there is no mention of many other popular KS4 subjects like art, drama, music, IT, computer science, DT, RE, dance, PE, in the consultation. The DFE consultation on KS4 reform – deeply flawed but we must respond. The DFE consultation on KS4 reform – abolition of the GCSE and what will replace it – is a slight document .
Nineteen pages to be precise, on what will undoubtedly be a major upheaval to our secondary schools. It is important that people think about what this document is proposing and respond, not only by answering the very limited questions it asks but by debating publicly those that it doesn’t. The opening paragraph of the document claims that the proposed changes will restore rigour and confidence to the examination system at 16 ” which has been “undermined by years of continued grade inflation”. Scant evidence is provided to justify these claims. Data from the phonics screen: a worryingly abnormal distribution. The new phonics screening test for children has been highly controversial.
I’ve been surprised at the amount of hostility engendered by the idea of testing children’s knowledge of how letters and sounds go together. There’s plenty of evidence that this is a foundational skill for reading, and poor ability to do phonics is a good predictor of later reading problems. So while I can see there are aspects of the implementation of the phonics screen that could be improved, I don’t buy arguments that it will ‘confuse’ children, or prevent them reading for meaning.
I discovered today that some early data on the phonics screen had recently been published by the Department for Education, and my inner nerd was immediately stimulated to visit the website and download the tables. What I found was both surprising and disturbing. M.guardian.co.uk. Sir Nicholas Serota: 'Arts have a primary role to play in a world that is dependent on literacy of all kinds, including visual.' Photograph: Richard Saker An entire generation of children could lose the cultural skills both they and the UK need if the government goes ahead with its English Baccalaureate plans without the arts as a core subject, the Tate director, Nicholas Serota, said on Thursday.
Serota used the launch of his organisation's annual report to urge ministers to rethink their plans for the EBacc certificates, which will replace GCSEs. Do we need a Public Examination at 16? English governments of whatever political persuasion have problems in coming to terms with a mass education system educating all young people to higher levels .
By the 21st century it was clear that all young people would enter a competitive global economy and jobs at all levels would need some kind of a qualification. A Labour government decided in 2008 that all students should stay in some form of education or training until 17 in 2013 rising to 18 in 2015, and although modifications were made in a 2011 Act , Raising the Participation Age (RPA) is currently on the agenda.
Why then do we need a public examination at 16, especially one examining a narrow range of subjects which is already skewing the curriculum offered in many schools. The history of an exam at 16 is not edifying. Fast forward to the early 1980s,with much youth unemployment and a 1980 Conservative decision to reform exams at 16. The Ebacc is a sad result of political rhetoric and empty intervention. The English Baccalaureate is a performance measure introduced in 2010, recognising success of pupils across a core of academic subjects in disadvantaged areas.
Photograph: David Davies/PA Archive There is a lot of rhetoric from Michael Gove about raising aspirations and closing the gap between richer and poorer pupils. This high profile secretary of state is clearly intent on being seen as the reforming education minister, successor to Ken Baker, who with Margaret Thatcher pushed through the 1988 Education Reform Act introducing the national curriculum and national assessment. The basic government premise is that raising scores for the lower socio-economic pupil groups will result in better education for all pupils and this is the philosophy underpinning the latest tinkering with the exam and testing system. M.guardian.co.uk. Young students at the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic's 'In Harmony' school in West Everton, Liverpool.
Photograph: Antonio Zazueta Olmos/for the Observer Leading musicians and music teachers, including the influential Schools Music Association (SMA), have joined forces to voice dismay at the impact of the planned Ebacc qualification. In a public letter the association claims that musicians working with secondary schools are "concerned that the latest government proposals will effectively mean the end of the teaching of creative subjects". The SMA is calling for assurances from education secretary Michael Gove that Britain's "world class" music education will be safeguarded when the new qualification, prioritising core academic subjects, is introduced. DfE Consultation on 16+ Examinations. The DfE’s formal consultation paper is now available.
Frankly, it’s not much more sophisticated that the leaks to the Mail. The evidence base is fragile to say the least and it rests almost entirely on a particular ideological fixation of ministers. The big issue though is not whether it’s a two tier sysm. Professor Robin Alexander’s devastating critique of Gove’s curriculum reforms. Professor Robin Alexander is one of the most respected academics in the educational field.
He pioneered dialogic teaching and directed the Cambridge Primary Review. During the last year, he has published two important academic papers: his response to the National Curriculum Review and an analysis of the ways in which international comparisons of education systems are misused by politicians. I’m going to look at his response to the National Curriculum Review here — and will move onto discussing his other paper at a later date. Alexander’s response to the National Curriculum has grown in relevance since it was published in June 2012. The full article is embedded below for you to read at your leisure, but I think it’s worth pointing out some key points that need to be stressed again and again by anyone who cares about the English education system. Third, Alexander re-iterates some very important arguments set out in the CPR about standards and accountability.
M.guardian.co.uk. Great Danes. GCSE Reforms: A Tale of Two (Confused) Issues. Written by Laura McInerney, Policy Development Partner The most puzzling thing about the GCSE reform announcements and consultation is how it conflates two entirely separate issues, yet no politicians so far seems to notice.
2012-09-17-letter-to-stephen-meek-gcse-reform. NAHT The EBC... and a very selective consultation. The English Baccalaureate Certificate... and a very selective consultation The next batch of guinea-pigs in England's ongoing educational experiment have been chosen.
Arise, Year 7: you've barely learned your way round secondary school, but on your shoulders weigh hopes that you'll keep it floating above whatever the new floor target is in 2017. Year 8, 9, and 10, meanwhile, will have to put up with taking exams condemned as not fit for purpose by the current education secretary, and with the worry that if the marking of a particular paper all goes horribly wrong (as it did with GCSE English this year) nobody will be along to bail them out.
M.guardian.co.uk. Once again a government is making a dog's dinner of examination reform. In 2005, Mike Tomlinson wrote a wide-ranging exam review and achieved an almost impossible consensus – only to see it blown out of the water by a general election in which neither the Conservatives or Labour wanted to be the party about to scrap A-levels. This time we have a proposed English baccalaureate certificate, about which there are still many questions. We don't know for how long students will continue to do GCSEs, and we don't know what will happen to the accountability and league tables.
The death of the GCSE could be much slower than Gove had wanted. One thing is clear, the proposed Ebacc has absolutely nothing to do with evidence, successful reform or standards. ‘Gove Levels’ – IBaccs Taking Us Backwards! Yesterday, when I responded angrily to the pernicious leaks through Gove’s mouth-piece, The Daily Mail, some Tweeters warned it was wise to wait for the details. Knowing Gove employs a ‘shock doctrine’ style of announcing policy at high speed, represented through the gross simplifications of the tabloid press, I made my objections known without delay.
By using such scurrilous tabloids, Gove often waves away criticisms of his plans with statements that it wasn’t actually his idea at all, but a newspaper simplification. This is before moving onto the next policy undaunted, unsupported by educational experts or most professionals in the field, devoid of any actual evidence about 21st century teaching and learning. We are careering towards a curriculum unfit for 1995, never mind 2015. He has labelled his new qualifications the ‘EBaccs’
. - Open ended, problem solving activities. The end of music in schools as we know it?: Interviews and Press - Howard Goodall. There is nothing wrong in wanting to improve standards in schools, especially of ‘core’ skills such as reading, writing, basic arithmetic, and so on. Latest News from Music Teacher Magazine. 18 September 2012 Michael Gove, secretary of state for education, has announced that the English Baccalaureate (EBacc) – which excludes music – will replace GCSEs from 2017 onwards.
Reforming Key Stage 4 Qualifications - About the Department.