Measuring schools

Peter Davis’ letter on the need to measure student learning as a form of accountability in education reinforces a widely held misconception about the accuracy of test scores when the stakes are high, as they are in National Standards and NCEA. Unfortunately, these scores are easily manipulated by teachers who waste precious teaching time coaching their students on easily predictable exam questions, or the internal assessments which they set and mark.

Anyone who has trialled and revised examinations will know how simple it is to make them easier and get students over the bar by asking different questions, making small changes in wording, etc.

Many schools pressure teachers to use mock “practice” tests which include tasks close to the high-stakes ones they will set. The feedback the students receive gives them a huge advantage and distorts the quality of their learning. There is much evidence of such practices and of more unethical ones, here and overseas.

For such reasons, most European countries do not allow school league tables. Most have inspectors assess the quality of the schools or use high-trust approaches. All systems that have embraced high-stakes standards-based policies, like ours, are sliding backwards in international surveys, just as we are.

We cannot use Government targets on National Standards and NCEA results as fair measures of accountability. Warwick Elley, Emeritus Professor

of Education, Rothesay Bay.