If you were setting out to manufacture a fine product you would ensure a good quality control process was in place.
There was a time when that was the case in education, but gone are the days when an inspector would sit in on a class to directly measure the effectiveness of teachers. Indirect measures of teacher performance, testing the students, are also unpopular with teachers … but popular with parents because they would like to know how their kids are going.
The first national study into NAPLAN’s impact, in which researchers garnered responses from more than 8300 teaching staff, has found it is “plagued” by unintended consequences.
More than 80 per cent of teachers felt test preparation was adding to an already crowded curriculum while just over two-thirds believed it had led to a timetable reduction for other subjects.
That research was conducted by asking teachers whether testing kids was a good thing … what answer would you expect?
bobmcgee 