League Tables
sent to AGE Friday, May 29, 2009
Chris Bonor (AGE, 29 May) rages against “league tables” for schools, but provides no answer for the neglected rump of able low-income children. In several suburbs, no child ever gets schooling adequate to enrol in a professional course.
Over the decades, we have heard of scheme after scheme, but nothing has made an overall difference. Only true accountability – publishing results – will produce the pressure necessary to get the needed reforms.
Bonor is obsessed about schools being harshly judged. But this is totally the wrong emphasis. It’s the kids we’re trying to open doors of opportunity for. It is good that schools change or if necessary close – if it means children get a better deal.
Good teachers have nothing to fear from accountability, incentive schemes like performance pay. Of course they will be judged on the improvements their students show, not on their base level or background disadvantages.
It is only through tests that needs can be known. Tests are not a trauma unless the teacher makes them so. Tests should be approached with a sense of curiosity. There are tests throughout life. Children who are taught to be spooked about tests are indeed disadvantaged.
Philip O'Carroll