EDUCATIONAL STANDARDIZATION November 13, 2007
Posted by wmmbb in Australian Politics, Growth, Social Environment.trackback
The reference in J Howard’s campaign launch speech to minimal standards of primary education surprised me. What is this all about?
Australia does not need an education revolution, whatever on earth that might mean; Australia needs an education system that teaches its children to read, to write, to spell and to add up as well as sharing all the technological enhancements that are part of the great learning experience.
This appears to be an evocation of the American notion of “standards based education“. In this model, education is training to be able to perform a job:
The vision of the standards-based education reform movement is that every teenager will receive a meaningful high school diploma that serves essentially as a public guarantee that they can read, write, and do basic mathematics (typically through first-year algebra) at a level which might be useful to an employer. To avoid a surprising failure at the end of high school, standards trickle down through all the lower grades, with regular assessments through a variety of means.
I suspect that this program in practice becomes more about certification than skill development. Setting aside the question of skills shortages, there are questions of what works and why, and the role of educators and learning environments in outcomes. Sean Gonslaves says that intelligence tests and similar test only measure certain types of abilities. Howard Gardiner and Robert Steinberg seem to believe that intelligence analogous to languages, as distinct from dialects, and that cognitive and other academic tests fail to identify abilities. Then there is the issue of individual difference in the unfolding of growth and the interrelationship with a conducive or non-conducive environment. The Prussian Model is all about forcing square pegs into round holes, and in the process destroying and crippling human talent and happiness.
In a fervid political environment, in which the positioning for wedge politics is the purpose of ideological posturing, there is little possibility for informed, wide ranging democratic dialogue and discussion. It seems to me, the Howard proposals, copied from the American master plans, represent, like so much else, the imposition of a purposefully and unnecessary paradigm. At the very least the inconsistence inherent in the world view should be identified.
Depends on what you are standardizing. The Western Canadian Protocol has resulted in the development a skills based curriculum for all subjects, beginning with Maths in the late ’90s. Provinces from Manitoba through to BC, including the NWT and Yukon have introduced these curricula – in the first year each course was piloted and then the next mandated, so that there was opportunity for correcting any glitches: this was preceded by several years of committee work/meetings by senior classroom teachers, drawn from the elementary/junior/senior high levels. Publishers liased with teachers/authors involved with those committees so that the new texts complemented the developed curricula. Alberta Education issued a list of approved texts but did not specify just one: hence, the old joke about every Social class in Texas having to be on page 200 on April 1st, doesn’t apply to the skills based curriculum. It does offer much flexibility and choice for the teacher within the parameters of what skills must be demonstrated by the student at the end of each grade. If you check out the Alberta Ed website, you’ll find the curriculum for each grade and each subject listed under the Curriculum Branch section, while samples of Achievement tests and Diploma exam papers are provided under Student Evaluation. Achievement tests are given every May to grades 3,6 and 9, rotating through maths, lanuage arts and social.
The WCP was very expensive, probably the reason that Alberta teachers did most of the work [Alberta is the richest province - oil,gas] because teachers were seconded from every district and that meant paying for substitute teachers, accommodation, travel expenses for committee members.So, the Canadian model is probably the direction in which Labor is headed, but their estimation of being able to complete the process by 2009 (the date given in the February announcement?) is unrealistic.
Thank you for your informed comment.
Alberta, it seems, is not only the richest province,but the most conservative, in the sense that the Progressive Conservatives hold 61 of the 83 seats in the Legislative Assembly. I thinking that Albertans might be ready to adopt proportional representation?
What works well in Alberta will work here as well, or at least be of interest. As you have suggested the sites Alberta Education, Western Canada Protocol, not least the Alberta Teacher’s Association sites appear to worth a look.
You’re welcome!
The PCs have been in power for decades beginning with the golden Lougheed era – Ralph Klein completed a triumphant, protracted farewell tour to mark his retirement last year. His reign spanned more years that JWH.
KR and the Shadow Minister for Education have already investigated the Canadian model, so that I suspect that’s pencilled in for the second phase of the “revolution”.