NKSK version 2

Well it depends how mired in semantics you wish to be.

If my daughter undertakes an assessment on 3 maths topics - long division, simplifying fractions and long multiplication and she underperforms in long division compared with the other two topics then a good teacher should be setting her additional work on long division. Hence her learning is influenced by the assessment.

All assessment is formative if used correctly by teacher and parent.

NKSK version 2

You're confusing rote learning with assessment.

How will you know how good your child is at critical thinking if you don't assess it?

How will you discover where the gaps are?

hoveactually

I would be perfectly content with "formative assessment" if this included feedback to the student/parent so that everyone is aware of what is expected. The schools can't have it both ways; they tell us on one hand that they believe eduction to be a partnership between home and school but only, apparently, if that means that parents don't ask awkward questions.

I would far rather have received the full NAPLAN report which shows exactly what questions my children could/could not answer rather than a dot on a scale. I would know then where the gaps are in their knowledge and be in a better position to support their learning.

I would also question whether teachers at primary level are "experts in this field'. Even Julia Gillard is on record as saying that, because there is such a shortage of teachers, the entry standards are now so low that someone who has barely passed year 12 can now be accepted into teacher training.

Safin

I have found my son is constantly being tested here, weekly, termly, Naplan etc. More so than last year in the uk even with the sats.

I agree.

The point I made was that if they are going to do the tests at least publish all the figures, by school as well as by state, and be accountable. Why not be? If one school gets far better results than another why shouldn't they explain it?

Maybe they are promoting different values or teach by different methods or are aiming to achieve different goals but at the end of the day the kids will be assessed and chosen (for work and uni) based on the results they get in the system dictated at the time - so they have to play that game. Ideally with the ability to be self developing learners and thinkers too.

scooby3

I stand by my statement rote learning is not beneficial....simple quantifiable testing at a young age has little purpose either as parent we feel quite comfortable at what stage of education development our children are at without national testing or being assessed agains other kids....its like the drive in the work place to have competency based training...thats what it is training do do a task not an education.

NKSK version 2

Spot on.
Schools kind of have this information. They receive a report which aligns the NAPLAN spread of results with statements of learning. So to achieve score XYZ you need to have understood certain aspects of maths and English; more abstract statements are aligned with higher scores.

Safin

This is why teachers should be accountable. We trust them with our childs academic future and many are barely able to do their jobs. If other professionals fail to perform then they get sacked - but not teachers. I know education isn't just about numbers and stats but they are a part of it and should form a significant part of a teachers own performance assessment. If colleagues consistantly get better reulsts than them you have to ask why?

NKSK version 2

Sounds like post-modernism to me.

Whilst learning Macbeth off by heart and then being asked to say which sentence is at the top of page 63 might be Victorian, are you seriously saying that knowing your times tables is not beneficial?

Or that knowing how to spell isn't beneficial?

Or that knowing how to add two numbers isn't beneficial?

hoveactually

Schools have exactly this information. There is A NAPLAN Additional Student Report which has a detailed breakdown of which questions were answered correctly and, for multiple choice questions, where a student answered incorrectly, what option was selected. It just isn't provided to parents in WA.

Safin

Nor in QLD

NKSK version 2

And does this lack of information concern anyone?

hoveactually

It certainly concerns me. If these are national tests then the feedback to parents should be the same no matter where you happen to live.

hereshoping

But teachers to get taken to task, and yes even sacked, if they don't do their job properly. As with all professions there will be some people who are better at their jobs than others- but incompetent teachers are not just tolerated. In both the UK and in VIC there is a rigerous system of observation and monitoring to ensure teachers are doing right by their students and to help them to improve. This sort of statement is exactly demonstrative of the complete lack of trust that many UK parents have in teachers, generally with no good reason for this mistrust.

On the rote learning/ critical thinking argument... it may be useful to know your timestable. But surely you can agree that it's more useful to understand why 6x7 is 42 in abstract terms rather than just recite the knowledge.

NKSK version 2

I can understand it yes - but bearing in mind how often it is necessary to know a multiple in other areas of mathematics it is critical to be able to recall them. Simplifying fractions? Calculating area? Volume? All of these more practical aspects of maths need knowledge recall of timestables.

Even though it is valuable to understand something from first principles and also to know why something is like it is, you still need to assess the understanding of the abstract to know what gaps exist in a child's learning. How can you create a program of study or learning for the child if you don't know the weaknesses?

NKSK version 2

They are in WA.