Teaching Comparative

British education policies

Sometimes it's necessary to translate news articles, even when they're written in English.

That's what I had to do to understand the report in The Guardian (London). Then I had to look up "A-Levels" to really understand the BBC report, since I'd never really been clear about what A-levels were.

Turns out that the "Sats" referred to are not what American high schoolers refer to as SAT. The British "Sats" refer to Standard Assessment Tasks which are evaluations used to determine whether schools and teachers are performing up to standard.

A-level exams, I found out, are subject-specific exams taken by British students in the final two years of secondary school. In those two years, students concentrate on 3 or 4 subjects and take A-levels in their areas of concentration. Passing 3 A-level exams is usually a minimum for university admission. (AS-levels are supplementary exams. While students usually concentrate on three subjects, they may study others in less depth.)

As in the U.S. with debates about No Child Left Behind, in the UK, "Sats" are controversial. In fact, a comparative case study examining the political issues surrounding NCLB and the Sats would be good practice.

The report about pass rates on A-levels offers complicating evidence of schools' and students' achievements, just like we get in the US. (Recently, it was reported that Minnesota students had the highest average ACT scores in the U.S. In spite of the high scores, almost half of Minnesota students going to college will require remedial work in mathematics and nearly two-thirds will require remedial science course work.)

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(Begin my editorial comments)On another note, I wonder why no one has noted a margin of error or a standard for significant difference in any of these testing results. Journalists and politicians go on about drops of 1% - 3%, but offer no hints about whether those changes indicate real failures or just statistical variations within a normal range. Has no one studied statistics?

Oh, and what kind of nonsense is it to say that young people should be "reaching their full potential at age 14..." There are a lot of us who were twice that age or more before we reached most of our potential. (End my editorial comments)

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Fall in Sats results for 14-year-olds

"Nearly one-third of 14-year-olds fail to reach the required standards in English, maths and science – a worse performance than last year, according to today's key stage 3 Sats results.

"The percentage of pupils achieving the expected level 5 in KS3 tests in English and maths combined is 66%, a fall of one percentage point on last year's figures...

"The schools minister, Jim Knight, congratulated schools on their results... 'But I am disappointed by the slight drops in English and science – reversing the rises of last year. We know there is more to do before all of our schools are truly world class and that every young person is reaching their full potential at age 14 and beyond'...

"'We are giving schools the tools they need – massive investment in support for teachers; more support for children's wider needs; and the new secondary curriculum starting next month, which will give them real flexibility over how they teach and the confidence to intervene earlier to give support to the right children, at the right time, in the right way.'

"But teachers argued that the results could not be relied upon and urged the government to halt Sats and review assessment.

"The shadow schools minister, Nick Gibb, said the government had failed to raise standards...

"The Liberal Democrat's children spokesperson, Annette Brooke, said it was time for Sats to be scrapped..."

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A-level pass rate and A grades up

"There has been another increase in the A-level pass rate and the proportion of entries awarded the top A grade. [Like the girls at right?]

"Figures from the Joint Council for Qualifications show 97.2% of entries in England, Wales and Northern Ireland passed, up from 96.9%.

"A grades went to 25.9% of the entries, up from 25.3% - and in Northern Ireland more than a third achieved an A...

"There were a record 827,737 A-level entries and 1.13 million AS-levels this year from more than 600,000 students..."

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And in a related matter, Sats marking contract is scrapped

"The firm responsible for this summer's national test marking "shambles", ETS Europe, has had its contract ended by exams watchdog the QCA.

"Problems with the marking of the tests, taken by 1.2 million 11 and 14 year olds in England, delayed results and prompted concerns about quality.

"ETS is to pay back £19.5m and cancel invoices worth £4.6m. The total contract for 2008 was worth £39.6m.

"The QCA said the five-year £156m contract was ended by 'mutual consent'..."

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Labels: policy, politics, UK

posted by Ken Wedding @ 5:55 AM