More Bollocks From The "Educationalists"

[A*O]

Parents urged to boycott reports
Justine Ferrari and Elizabeth Gosch
June 17, 2006

PARENTS are being urged to reject a system that grades their children from A to E as part ofacampaign to sabotage the national push for plain-English report cards.
The national bodies representing the parents of government-school students and teachers will encourage parents to refuse to accept the new model.

The states are being forced to introduce the new plain-English reports, which rank students' performance over five levels, to maintain their federal funding under reforms sparked by complaints that existing assessment models are vague and confusing.

Announcing the move during the 2004 election campaign, then federal education minister Brendan Nelson said: "Parents want to know that their children are meeting national literacy and numeracy standards. They want to receive plain-English reports of their child's progress."

But Jenny Branch, president of the Australian Council of State School Organisations, the peak body representing public school parents, yesterday attacked the push for A-to-E gradings on report cards.

She said report cards were notintended to identify problems with students, but to provide a written record of their achievement.

"The traditional end-of-the-year report card is a celebration of achievement of a child throughout the year," she said.

"If I was waiting to get a report card to identify a problem with my children, I would be pretty disappointed. The onus is on good school practice to communicate with parents in more ways than just a report card, especially when identifying a problem with a student."

She was supported by Australian Education Union national president Pat Byrne, who encouraged parents to consider telling schools they did not want their child judged with A-to-E report cards. "These reports aren't indicative of what children can do. We would be encouraging parents to consider not exercising that option," she said.

Under the current system, each state and territory is allowed its own method of grading students from Year 1 to Year 12. And a survey by The Weekend Australian shows a wide variation in how student achievements are rated.

South Australia, for example, has three levels - "area for growth", "satisfactory" and "area of strength". Queensland has three levels from "needs improvement" to commendable", while NSW has four levels from "low" to "outstanding".

Under the new model, all states would be forced to adopt five levels from A to E, though it would be up to the states and territories to determine what each level would mean.

In Western Australia, A would represent "excellent", while E would represent "below minimal acceptable level". In Victoria, a student would get an A for 12 months of performance above a statewide standard, and an E for performance "well below" the statewide standard.

NSW Premier Morris Iemma said this week that he became a supporter of the changes after being unable to understand his daughter's report card last year.

"The new reports are designed to meet that fundamental right of parents to know how their child is progressing and to know how the school is progressing," he said. "It's crueller to the child and to the parents of that child not to give the parents the information if there is an issue that needs to be dealt with."

Simon Crisp, a child psychologist at Monash University's education faculty, supported the push for a simpler grading system, saying mechanisms rating young children were important in developing coping skills.

"We are judged in various ways throughout our life, and learning to cope with some of the feedback is important," he said. "It is an important life skill for students to develop."

Some parents organisations have also come out in support of the new report cards.

Former president of the Federation of Parents and Citizens Associations in NSW Sharryn Brownlee said parents wanted consistency between schools and classes. "This is about not being regressive and treating A-to-E grades as negative. It's seen by parents as positive, so a C grade means the same in each school."

Federal Education Minister Julie Bishop yesterday brushed off the looming campaign. A spokesman for the minister said she expected that most parents would choose to adopt the plain-English report cards.

The NSW Teachers Federation has taken the state Government to the Industrial Relations Commission in an attempt to stop the new reports going ahead.

While the federation is not advising parents to consider exercising their choice, it is advising teachers to eschew the A-to-E reports and stick with the existing system.

In Sydney yesterday, NSW Education Minister Carmel Tebbutt was forced to correct comments from teachers to parents who had been told that under the new system it would be impossible for their children to receive an A or B in the first year of some modules.

NSW Teachers Federation president Maree O'Halloran blamed the misinformation on the state Education Department's training for some teachers. "Some are saying that if your child is only halfway through a stage the best they could get is a C," she said.

But a spokesman for Ms Tebbutt said students would be graded according to the level they were at, and not compared with students in a higher level.

Source: The Australian 18/6/06

I no longer understand my kids' school reports. They are not graded A-E or even, God forbid, F for Fail so I know where they are doing OK and where the problems are. We get things like "Establishing" "Consolidating" and "Progressing". WTF does that mean? Of course, the whole notion of 'failure' is completely airbrushed out in case their delicate little souls are crushed so we are back to the "she took part" and "he tried hard" bullshit. Yet again the tail is wagging the dog. No wonder we are breeding a generation of Entitlement Monsters.

[SVZ]

I propose we rewrite the entire system

"Your Child Can't Read This Sentence"

"Your Child Is A Moron"

"Your Child Is Stupid"

etc, etc

[deckchick]

I propose we rewrite the entire system

"Your Child Can't Read This Sentence"

"Your Child Is A Moron"

"Your Child Is Stupid"

etc, etc

Or we could just go back to the system that worked...

A to F

No misunderstandings there..

[Lobelia]

This reminds me of two words that, combined, give me convulsions & migraines.....

Self Esteem.

[UndercoverGator]

This reminds me of two words that, combined, give me convulsions & migraines.....

Self Esteem.

Heavens to Murgatroid, this madness is everywhere. Just tried making sense of my kids Standards of Learning test scores for the last few years which are graded bizarrely as D (Disachievement - politeeese for Flunk), P (Proficent - or what we might term a C or B) and the only one I understand, A (Advanced). At least they cut it to three letters this year, in previous years there have been up to ten different letters assigned to the scores, all with the ultimate goal of not damaging some stupid kid's fragile 'self esteem' The little shit flunks the test he deserves some negative self esteen. Why all this need to candy coat everything in the educational system now?

[A*O]

Why all this need to candy coat everything in the educational system now?

Because if you say anything negative about my gilded little prince/princess I'll sue ya for emotional distress and trauma.

Another phrase they like to use is "Deferred Achievement" ie, Fail. In my day the most wishy washy phrase was "Could try harder" ie Lazy or "X has a lot of potential if only he/she would apply him/herself" ie Very Lazy. I've spoken to several parents at my kids' school and every single one of them wants the A-E system.