Exams getting easier? And why could that be?

[sparkindarkness]

As exam time approached the perennial question is asked “are exams getting easier?” with lots of nattering about qualifications becoming worthless and, really, is an A-Level in Austrian Geriatric Punting really that useful? Added in a heavy dose of “wow this generation’s ignorant” coupled with “schools aren’t teaching the basic skills people need!”

And my answer to this is:

Well DUH. What do you expect?! Surely this was predictable?

Let us consider 2 aspects of the education system:
1) League Tables (based on exam obsession)
2) Privatised exam boards.

The first one means that teachers will teach to the exam. Schools are organised around the exam. Studying knowledge that may be useful in the real world or interesting or even part of the subject you are supposed to be studying is irrelevant - they need to be able to quote the exam answers parrot fashion. Which is why there are millions of kids out there who know what the Spinning Jenny is and who made it and even WHEN but they can’t tell you who Chamberlain was. Pupils do not need to know a subject, schools are penalised for wasting time on actual teaching. They need to be able to do the exam.

Which brings us to no. 2. Exam boards are BUSINESSES. They are in COMPETITION. Now how do you get (league table obsessed) schools to go for your exam (and earn you lots of money)?

By providing a comprehensive exam and education guide that covers the subject fully and ensures the pupils are taught a broad base of knowledge and skills well?

OR

By making your exam as easy as possible while still being acceptable by the watchdogs and ensuring lessons are geared to the exam as much as possible (and likely be much more boring) meaning the school will get a nice high grade rate and climb those league tables?


Because cynical me can see which one is going to get the most “customers” and lead to the biggest bottom line. And that's the problem with privatising something like this - because for some things profit is not the priority.

Comments

[kirylyn.livejournal.com]

wow

and here I thought that mindset (teach JUST the exam questions, nothing else is relevant) came from the 'no child left behind' bs

/shakes head

scary to see other countries doing so as well

and gee, wonder WHY the US students can no longer compete with students from other countries to the point that the Sec of Edu "declined" an invite to a tourney.

/headdesk
/headdesk
/headdesk

we are robots
we do not think
we do not know HOW to think
BAA

[mauracelt.livejournal.com]

My BB and I talked about this same situation not too long ago. WHat got me the most about it was that back in the late 1800's an education was more valid than it is today! He showed me the site he was looking at and we read it over (can't remember the link, but it was so intense!) to see what kids were learning then compared to now. Can you beleive, a college grad today is not as smart as an 8th grade student was then? How many grads can tell you what a hectar is, how many acres, yards, feet, etc. are in it and how best to devide it for farming? That was a standard Q on tests back then. Not even the kids that study farming in college today get those kinds of Q's! THere were lots of simple Q's like that on the tests, but today the tests are more geared to what makes the most money for corporate values, not how to make the best of simple things that are valid in your daily life. *shakes head* I wish I could remember that site, you would be amased at the stuff kids over here used to be required to learn Before they left school to work at the ripe old age of 12 or 13.

[jerril]

Um. Okay, a few problems here.

Most of us don't need to learn how to divide an area for farming at all.

Yards, feet, etc, are barbaric units from a backward age, and while a bit of training in them for when dealing with the two barbaric nations that still use them is necessary, detail is not. A Hectare is an OBSOLETE unit, knowing the USA subdivisions is kind of silly because it's not USED any more. It was on the curiculum in the 1800's because that was OVER A HUNDRED YEARS AGO.

THe kids that study farming in college today don't get these kinds of questions, because they're OBSOLETE AND OUT OF DATE.

[mauracelt.livejournal.com]

Excuse me, but you are wrong in several notes here:
1. Hectares are Still used as measure here in the U.S. Yes, they are only used to measure out areas of land, but they are still quite valuable measures none the less.
2. As I was using that one instance as an example of things we are no longer learning, it was not intended as a standard modicum of interest but merely example of lessons learned and lost.
and finally
3. If the standard of education was as good today as it was in the past, we Would have not this one mere situation involved in in the lack on our education, but the balancing of books before the age of 10, the references needed to learn to start and maintain a business and the valuable lessons of proper etiquette and behavior no longer taught in schools today. And these are just a FEW of the things valued and lost to the systems.... *sigh*

[procris.livejournal.com]

Ironically, I do know what the Spinning Jenny is, what it's for, and although I'm a little hazy on the exact year, I can give you a range. I can do none of these things for Chamberlain. On the otherhand, I'm a materialist whose interest in English history is focused on materials history-- The Spinning Jenny helped the Great Rag shortage, which incedentally delayed the introduction of wood-pulp based paper as a major trend until after the cotton shortage caused by the American Civil War.

do do doo, ignore the geek, do do doo.

[chesh.livejournal.com]

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/195339.php

I laughed. And laughed. And laughed.
Then I sobbed quietly into my pillow over the future of the US.

[dontkickmycane.livejournal.com]

Not that I know much about the spinning Jenny or Chamberlain (I'm pleading Canadian, here) but I know what you mean about teaching kids how to get long in the world. Our school system is different from yours, but still vastly flawed, and quite frankly, I'm happy to keep my kids out of it and actually teach them how to do the things people need to do to get on in life. Like look up 'Spinning Jenny' in the interwebs! Or even, heaven forbid - in the library, Oh my goodness.

I won't deny the system had a place, but it has been largely outgrown and the patches put in place to keep it going are not going to work as far as I can see. Like I say, quite happy not to have my kids broken by a system that makes no sense. Watching them get excited about learning is something I couldn't bear to see crushed by the drone mills we call schools. The system as it is feeding itself, I suppose, but it's consuming slop, and that diet is going to catch up pretty soon, I think.

[beladibaby.livejournal.com]

My daughter is finishing up her freshman year of high school next week. Out here we have the same "teach to the test" atmosphere combined with horrid pay and funding for the local public schools. Standerised tests really don't prove anything other than a child can memorise something. We were lucky in that kiddo went to a charter school, before legislation got involved, for her elemntary school years. It put her leaps and bounds ahead of her public school peers and all by two wonderful teachers who did not actually have their teaching degrees yet. They did everything in their power to actually teach the kids, not just teach a test. Not surprisingly their students pretty much walked through the "no child left behind" tests with little to no problems and scored well above thier peers in the public schools. All because they taught the kids, not just taught a test. Too bad the government here doesn't get that.

[thisdaydreamer.livejournal.com]

And we wonder why common sense is becoming less and less common. Students no longer have to think!