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Tests for students from first year of school announced (lemmy.nz)

submitted 4 months ago by Dave to c/politics

8 comments fedilink hide all child comments

The government has announced mandatory reading, writing and maths tests for primary schools.

From next year, schools will be required to test the ability of five year olds to link sounds and letters at 20 and 40 weeks of schooling.

From years 3-8, schools would have to test children's reading, writing and maths twice a year using either e-asTTle or Progressive Assessment Tests (PATs).

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[–] Dave 9 points 4 months ago

Sorry, posted to wrong community. Removing the old and putting this here.

My comment from the other post:

This is so dumb. I particularly dispise the idea of testing 5 year olds. Many countries, especially ones we compare ourselves with, don’t start school until 6 or 7. Hell, we don’t require school until 6. We know that forcing young kids into academics before they are ready can be detrimental to their later learning, which is why the first couple of years only have casual learning and lots of social interaction to build those skills.

Could the government be wrong? No! It is the experts who are wrong.

[–] TagMeInSkipIGotThis 4 points 4 months ago

Its back to the future all over again...

NACTional have been beating the same drums basically the entire time i've been a voter; despite every time they implement their ideas it turning out (as the experts have repeatedly told them) that it doesn't work like they claim it will. Tax cuts to improve the lot of everybody, boot camps to stop youth crime, standardised testing for children - its all the same nonsense over & over again.

They implement it, it doesn't help anything, and then under a Labour government they remove it & implement what the experts in the field have been suggesting instead.

Testing 5 years olds isn't got to cost us the $300m hit for not buying ferries so its not the same immediate economic vandalism; but if it helps to ruin the first few years of education for a whole cohort of children that can't exactly be great for the country in 20 plus years.

2014: https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/ED1409/S00145/government-continues-its-obsession-with-testing-children.htm 2009: https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1121909.pdf

[–] liv 2 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

Progressive Assessment Tests (PATs).

Ha ha I remember those from the 1980s! 😄 Whole bunch of multi choice.

I remember coming home and apologizing to my mum that I'd zoned out during the Listening Comprehension and probably failed, her reply was something like don't worry about it because PAT tests are just the government testing the schools.

[–] Dave 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I remember the name but also there were so many different tests. Were PATs the ones where you used a B2 pencil?

I remember reading Freakonomics where they looked at the data from schools and found evidence that teachers were editing answers before submitting in order to make themselves look like better teachers 😆

[–] liv 2 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

I mostly remember they smelled nice and had high print quality! But yes pencil. And foldy bits.

Must re read Freakonomics sometime. That's hilarious but I guess to be expected. Remember teaching inspectors?

Teacher: "Now remember class, an inspector is coming to inspect you all today so you must be nice and quiet and on your best behaviour all day"

Me (to my friends) "we can just act normal, mum says the inspector is really only inspecting Mr Mackie's teaching". 😆

[–] Dave 2 points 4 months ago

Haha I have terrible memory but I do remember on occasion a person coming to watch a teacher teach. I don't think the teacher ever tried to pass it off as inspecting the kids, though 😆

[–] BlueEther@no.lastname.nz 2 points 4 months ago

We have a young-ish one that has severe anxiety issues I cant see that being a good environment for her - lucky we started to homeschool both girls at the start of this year and dont have to put up with this crap

[–] RecallMadness 1 points 4 months ago

This is one of the reasons I emigrated. To get away from standardised testing when it doesn’t matter.

Sigh. Sorry kiddo, tried to do the right thing.