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Interversity Quotes"I think it's time to ask the Standardistos: Where's the test for compassion? For honesty? For curiosity? For moral commitment? Until they can answer, let's tell them to shut up." —Susan Ohanian (One Size Fits Few: The Folly of Educational Standards) Interversity ProjectsEchoes of Orwell:The purpose of this webforum is to promote a lively discussion among students and faculty alike about George Orwell's 1984 and the parallels or echoes found in today's society. |
[Author Prev][Author Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Author Index][Thread Index] Brit literacy drive has little impact - failure linked to testing
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uklatest/story/0,,-7043411,00.html Literacy drive has almost no impact Press Association Friday November 2, 2007 1:08 AM Ministers have spent half a billion pounds on raising standards of English in primary schools with "almost no impact" on children's reading skills, a major review warned. Pupils feel increasingly stressed about school tests and are losing their love of books in the drive to improve literacy levels, the Primary Review found. Researchers for the Cambridge University-based project warned reading standards had barely improved since the 1950s. They called for a major overhaul of the primary school testing regime amid warnings the current system could be giving up to a third of children the wrong grades. As part of the biggest inquiry into primary education for decades, the Primary Review published three reports from academics at the universities of Bristol and Durham and the National Foundation for Educational Research. The Durham University study, led by Professor Peter Tymms, warned the Government's "massive efforts" had brought little reward. The National Literacy Strategy, which includes the literacy hour daily English lesson in schools, had made a "barely noticeable" impression on reading standards. "Five hundred million pounds was spent on the National Literacy Strategy with almost no impact on reading levels," the report said. The study said the apparently dramatic rise in primary school test results in the last decade vastly overstated the true scale of improvements. The report said: "The rises exaggerated the changes in pupils' attainment levels and were seriously misleading." Copyright (c) Press Association Ltd. 2007, All Rights Reserved. Monty Neill, Ed.D. Co-Executive Director FairTest 342 Broadway Cambridge, MA 02139 617-864-4810 x 101; fax 617-497-2224 monty@fairtest.org http://www.fairtest.org Donate: https://secure.entango.com/servlet/donate/MnrXjT8MQqk
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