Given the pressure to perform in exam league tables, it's no wonder that some schools decide to cheat, says TES reader Tony Callaghan. Source: TES
Working as a Threshold Adviser and Assesssor for the DFES (that was) in Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Luton between 2000 and 2005, it was patently obvious from the documentation that i received from schools prior to my visits, that schools were 'manipulating' SATs results.
As a former senior manager for more than 20 years in schools, I had much sympathy for the difficulties they faced as a direct result of poor standings in the league tables. The last school I worked in in Bedfordshire eventually closed (after i had resigned as Head) because it did not manipulate SATs.
The school now closed, so it can be named (ST Bede's 9--13 RC Middle School) fell further and further down the league table, the pupil roll was decimated by parental choice, and it was closed in July 2006.
There are numerous examples of honest schools facing this threat. Is it any wonder, then, that some schools have decided, in the words of the tabloid press, to "cheat''?
As a teacher and trade unionist, I have every sympathy with the large number of schools who manipulate tests. The schools highlighted in the media are the unlucky ones whose manipulation was not sophisticated enough to fool Big Brother. When I examined the PANDAS and other documentation relevant to the assessment of school performance, it was obvious to an experienced eye that, for example, the range of ability and socio-economics of school pupils often did not match the SATs results.
Personally, as an educator, I never agreed with SATs. Obviously, teachers were going to teach to the tests to the detriment of a broad and balanced curriculum for the pupils.
This is not a new phenomenon. When I was entered for the '11 plus' in the late 1950s, I was coached by the Headteacher and helped in the exam. Why? Because the reputation of the school was determined by the number of children who got into the Grammar School.
When teachers are faced with the possibility of the eventual closure of their school due to poor test results, don't you think they are going to manipulate the system that has visited the education service with ludicrous targets and league tables linked to a national curriculum that is not fit for purpose?
Teacher and Headteacher organisations have not been prepared to face up to this blight on our children. Mick Brookes promised a boycott of tests when he was elected: the NUT bluffed and blustered over the SATs : NASUWT argued to bring back woodwork and metalwork: ATL argued and argued and argued.
Of course, now that a handful of primaries have been pilloried by the National Assesment Agency, the Union leaders in a pathetic, half hearted, whisper, are blaming'' pressure to meet performance targets'' ; '' targets do not reflect the ability of children'' ; '' we need a system of tests that promote professional integrity'' : the dreaded value-added factors raise their heads from the abyss'.
Quite frankly, the whole system of testing in schools is farcical. It keeps the employees of quangos such as the National Assessment Agency and the others, too numerous to mention, in employment.
Of course, outraged ministers claim manipulating the 'system' is unacceptable and unnecessary... as if they would not cheat if their jobs were on the line, nudge, nudge, wink, wink.
In my former role as an adviser, the last thing on my mind was putting a school and its employees on the slippery slope to oblivion. Talking to former colleagues about the figures from the exams watchdog, they all agreed that manipulation of SATs in particular has been around since their inception and 'cheating' was inevitable, once government started to turn the screw.
Naturally, schools are going to deny any 'cheating', but as far as i am concerned, the majority of schools deserve academy status or an oscar for their genius in circumventing a bureacratic and bogus system of assessing the ability of the nations children. Ask teacher, teacher knows best.
