Over examined: another news report link

The second investigative journalism link I came across that may be of interest examines the testing situation in UK schools. The title says it all: Tested to destruction

I can only say how bonkers all this testing is when I recall the abject stress of having to take exams at age 16! Never mind sets of exams at 7, 11, 14. Pure madness.

It's bizarre that the resources that go into all this testing are not applied to help children with learning disabilities to overcome them.

This culture (and it's not limited to England) of assessment is increasingly bizarre and pointless since the supports and resources are not inplace to support children to overcome challenge. It's all about governments having excel worksheets full of figures that do little but stress out teachers and do a signicant disservice to children.

Primary pupils show lack of progress in basic skills

From The Guardian


The government was accused of complacency yesterday after revealing that writing standards among seven-year-olds had fallen for the second year in a row. The statistics, released by the Department for Children, Schools and Families, also showed no improvements in other core areas, such as maths and science.
The results follow recent evidence of poor progress among 11- and 14-year-olds.

While ministers insisted they were maintaining "high standards at this crucial stage of education", the Conservatives attacked their "complacency" and the Liberal Democrats claimed the whole primary school programme had lost momentum.

The Observer: Back to basics: the simple lessons I learnt about good schooling

Interesting piece in Sunday's Observer penned by one of Blair's former aides, Peter Hyman, who quit to become a teacher.

This paragraph in particular struck me

While wanting total freedom himself to get on with things and without the local education authority or the government breathing down his neck, Alan's policy within the school is not based on letting go, but on tight control. Consistency is one of Alan's big themes. Homework set at the start of each lesson rather than in a rush at the end of a lesson, seating plans for every class, books marked regularly and using the same format to show students how to make progress, a consistent approach to pastoral support that picks up early on students with problems. All this may sound obvious, but too often it does not happen. 'Consistency is not dull, it's liberating,' says Alan. 'If you get the baseline right you can start being creative.' He believes that all of his rules have an intellectual basis - they have been shown to support learning.

Read the whole article here: http://observer.guardian.co.uk/focus/story/0,,2110198,00.html

The Observer: Feature article on dyslexia

Article in today's UK Observer about dyslexia:

In a small room at the physiology department of the University of Oxford a man is being tested for dyslexia. This is an elaborate, detailed and standardised process, and the tests get harder as the session unfolds.

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/magazine/story/0,,1987978,00.html

The article is well worth reading. The journalist Simon Garfield travelled to several conferences and gatherings. The article also details some of the history of the recognition of the existence of dyslexia.

Three resources listed at the end of the article:

The Dyslexia Research Trust: dyslexic.org.uk
Dyslexia Action: dyslexiaaction.org.uk
British Dyslexia Association: bdadyslexia.org.uk

Advocates for Children of New York resource

This website has some very interesting reports and studies including this one which provides a critical examination of New York's gifted programs and an analysis of segregation in the programs. Nationally, experts estimate black and Latino students are underrepresented in gifted programs by fifty to seventy percent.

http://www.advocatesforchildren.org/pubs/2005/gifteded.pdf

There are also examples of current litigation and legal challenges being undertaken on behalf of various children and/or excluded groups in education generally.

Parents and/or interested readers will find much to read generally on this website whether or not they live in New York especially under their policy reports section.

http://www.advocatesforchildren.org/mission.php

BBC: Extra help for struggling pupils

UK News story

Ministers want all pupils to have what the better off pay for
Children who fall behind in maths or English could be offered one-to-one tuition to help get them back on track.
Struggling pupils in the later years of primary and early years of secondary school will get extra help outside school hours from qualified teachers.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/6235167.stm

UK:Britain 'wasting talent of its brightest kids'

(Dec 31st 2006)

Tens of thousands of bright children in the poorest parts of England and Wales are being let down by schools that fail to nurture their talent, a leading government adviser has warned Tony Blair.
Sir Cyril Taylor, chairman of the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust, said those who opposed spending more time and money on gifted and talented children held an 'anti-elitist ideology' that would hold back the economy.

http://education.guardian.co.uk/schools/story/0,,1980605,00.html

It's interesting that in none of these articles is there any mention of the fact that gifted children can also have learning disabilities ....

UK: Future of schooling report gets cautious welcome

Teachers have given a guarded welcome to a report on the government's vision for schooling by 2020, warning ministers against the development of an "overly bureaucratic processes".
The report, written by Christine Gilbert before her recent appointment as head of Ofsted, suggests pupils should be able to choose what they study, ask each other for help in answering questions, mark their own work and grade their teachers' performance.

http://education.guardian.co.uk/schools/story/0,,1982852,00.html

UK news story: Bright pupils to receive vouchers for extra lessons

On today's Guardian newspaper:

A voucher system to provide extra lessons for the brightest 10% of children in England is being introduced in schools, the Department for Education and Skills said today.
The initiative will help an estimated 800,000 pupils who will be able to spend their vouchers on additional courses, "master classes" at university-run summer schools or online evening classes.

The scheme, an extension of the government's National Academy of Gifted and Talented Youth, which has run into passive resistance from a sizeable minority of schools, is being promoted by Lord Adonis, the schools minister and former No 10 adviser

.

To read article click here

This is an interesting proposal, except how would it be administered and are national curriculum tests any real indicator of the gifted population? I find that an unlikely prospect, as we all know standardised testing is intensely flawed and designed to fill up numbers in tables on charts, rather than accurately identify any individual strengths.

Here's another link to another interesting paper called: Investigating the notion of children with multiple exceptionalities which mentions learning disabilities and ADHD and high ability.