Year 6 SATs controversy

[PupCuff]

In a test situation, at 10/11, might you not stumble when you’ve struggled with the text and questions in the first section and then see an answer? As an adult, you say that’s easy but I bet if you were put into a similar situation with questions on a text that you have no context to you would struggle.

This is the thing though. Many people would not struggle. I would not struggle. In any way, shape or form, because to me, it is patently obvious what is being asked, and this kind of thing was also patently obvious when I was old enough to take these tests as a kid.

It isn't to say that general academic ability is everything - I'm hopeless at anything creative and accept that. People are good at different things. That has a massive benefit to society as a whole. But the constant putting down of the SATs (or GCSEs or whatever is in vogue to complain about at the moment) does my head in because what it says, is, it says that children (or even the adults complaining) should not aspire to basic academic competence. It's the test that must be too hard, it's not that the individual lacks the ability to perform at a level expected of an 11 year old.

We celebrate that academic qualifications aren't everything and actively celebrate those kids who do well in non-academic areas, which is the right thing to do. What isn't right is to do that at the expense of bright kids who are academically gifted and excel in the general academic subjects.

Let the bright kids get the high test scores and have targeted support to help them go beyond good and achieve excellence, and let the non-academically inclined kids get low scores which they can either use as motivation to knuckle down and develop or - probably the more effective option - promote focused development on the specific areas which they're actually pretty good in and enjoy doing.

 

[Bayum]

But if you have a test that is far more challenging than previous, are you really getting a rigorous data set of ‘these children know x and these don’t?’ Otherwise, all you have done is catered to those students that are far higher than everyone else.

Will be interesting to see the bell curve for scaled scores on Monday.

 

[gswindale]

But if you have a test that is far more challenging than previous, are you really getting a rigorous data set of ‘these children know x and these don’t?’ Otherwise, all you have done is catered to those students that are far higher than everyone else.

Will be interesting to see the bell curve for scaled scores on Monday.

Depends.

I remember my A level maths. We did loads of previous papers in the run up to the exams. So many that by the end we could only do a couple of the questions as the syllabus had changed.

Does that make my A level grade worth less than the one of someone who sat the exam 20 years earlier?

 

[Bishopstone]

Perhaps worth pointing out that primary education is one of England’s strengths, and the testing regime may be one of the reasons why. The cliche, in my work environment, is that what gets measured, gets done. I think literacy and numeracy are important enough to warrant measurement.

 

[dangie]

I’m now 72 so left school in 1967 way before SATS were invented. We had the Eleven Plus. Result from that was either ‘posh’ Grammer School or standard Secondary Modern. Mine was Secondary Modern. The two schools were only about half a mile apart on the same side of the town with he same start & finish times so that obviously led to a bit of fun.

I’m quite old fashioned in many things. One is that I feel children nowadays are overprotected from everyday life. Life has that annoying habit of kicking you in the b*lls. You will not succeed in everything you wish to do. Life is full of disappointments. Experiencing disappointments at an early age is good education for life.

 

[AlterEgo]

But if you have a test that is far more challenging than previous, are you really getting a rigorous data set of ‘these children know x and these don’t?’ Otherwise, all you have done is catered to those students that are far higher than everyone else.

Will be interesting to see the bell curve for scaled scores on Monday.

That's why I think the extension paper is a good idea. But even so, I don't think any of the "problem" questions are especially difficult for someone in Year 6 to answer.

I'm not a teacher though!

 

[Bayum]

Depends.

I remember my A level maths. We did loads of previous papers in the run up to the exams. So many that by the end we could only do a couple of the questions as the syllabus had changed.

Does that make my A level grade worth less than the one of someone who sat the exam 20 years earlier?

I’d argue yes. It is. When there’s been effectively 3-4 syllabus changes and material changes in the last decade, you end up in a situation where you don’t stay up to date with relevant material and the cohort post-syllabus change covers more than you did.

That's why I think the extension paper is a good idea. But even so, I don't think any of the "problem" questions are especially difficult for someone in Year 6 to answer.

I'm not a teacher though!

Well. The removal of ‘levels’ and the government’s focus on ‘everyone achieves’ and ‘all should make progress within year only’ have effectively abolished that premise.

Again. It depends where you are. We’re lucky where I am as all our Y6s completed the paper and we have a number that were/are not on track to achieve a pass on the scaled score. A comparable school nearby to us said that their ‘expected’ didn’t complete the paper. It’s difficult. We don’t teach exam technique and when you have the situation this year where questions were asked out of sequence compared to the text it makes it that much more challenging.

I’ve already given my beliefs and my reasons. I’m not going to repeat them again as they’re too numerous and lengthy.

 

[jon0844]

I agree that they're meant to test students, but it does seem like they had rather a lot of questions with not a lot of time (given you need to read all of the questions properly, read the passages of text, and have time to re-read).

A friend of my son, who both did theirs last week, was ultra stressed and his mum posted on Facebook how he wasn't sleeping well - so I believe they may have slightly misjudged things. It was only that one paper though and they will likely adjust the marking accordingly.

 

[dangie]

……and his mum posted on Facebook…...

Therein lies much of today’s problems……

 

[jon0844]

Therein lies much of today’s problems……

That a mum posts about their child being stressed? Facebook has lots to issues, but this is at least someone using Facebook for it's original purpose (friends posting to other friends).