Misleading league tables

Today is a sad day. A whole year's effort that can be summed up by a parent saying our results based on league tabled published in the West are in the bottom four in the state. This will discourage parents from entering kids in our school, in a year where getting kids is tough due to the half cohort.

Yet, if I go on last years experience, each of the kids listed as sitting four or more TEE subjects, that wanted university entry, will be in university next year or will have deferred for the following year.

For some they will go through the front door and it is a fantastic achievement whether it is with a 60 TER or 99.5 TER. Students reaching their goals is where our focus should be. They have made it with little parental support, limited schooling, some with ESL backgrounds and with a host of social issues.

For some, they are the first students to graduate year 12 in their families. For others, just the opportunity to try for university is an achievement for this generation - a goal which may still eventuate through a uni entrance programme or other 'back door' programme.

At least the independent schools stood up and said the publishing of these tables was wrong.. It's a pity the department and our politicians still don't accept that these tables give a false representation of what is happening post school.

Misleading and a poor use of statistics.

Here is our state Minister's recent comment on the topic. It credits teachers with using a range of assessment to assist in teaching a child and recognises that change is required but does not recognise the damage caused by releasing data that ignores this information!

Headlines rather than journalism

The poor journalism at Channel 7 continues with a sensationalist report aimed at placing doubt on teacher quality by drawing conclusions from statements that were not causal.

The headline stated that teacher quality was the main reason for state school improvement, whereas Neil Hunt (the principal of Churchlands SHS) stated that teacher improvement programmes were a major factor. A poor quality teacher cannot improve, teacher quality has little to do with the quality of improvement programmes.

Sharon ONeil called for schools to closely examine student statistics. This also is not a statement about teacher quality. Underlying this statement is the fact that lower student input in year 7/8 means that lower student output in year 12 is also likely. Where state schools competed outside of the big five with competitive entry (Perth Mod, Churchlands, Rossmoyne, Shenton, Willeton) then there is something very good going on in those schools and they should get a pat on the back (Belridge, Duncraig etc.).

Should we fire a new teacher because they are gaining experience? Should only teachers with experience teach at higher levels? Is a C result for a class of disaffected kids worse than an A result in a talented and motivated class in a green leafy? How do we measure quality and their results? Teacher quality is not a quantifiable measure of a school.

Furthermore, I suppose the media thinks that saying it's the best achievement in years is help but it is disingenuous if you then immediately show that state schools are performing worse than private and independent schools - they have re-inforced the gap especially if connections to catholic and SES status are not also drawn. Sensationalist, with little purpose and damaging to the sector. A report completely lacking journalistic integrity.

If the media continues to bash state schools then we can't expect to close the gap to the private sector. We ask a lot of low SES kids, when they compete with kids with strong educational backgrounds. To compete effectively we need to attract more middle class kids that have clear examples of the benefits of an education.

I understand that some level of criticism and improvement must be publicised for parents to again get confidence in the public system, but we have to be careful in its implementation and remember that the core of the issues faced are as a result of poor government management, planning and implementation over a long period of time (especially during the OBE implementation). To scapegoat teachers as requiring "quality" improvement (inferring that teachers in general lack quality without stating whom, what or how it will be fixed), damages the integrity of the system and does not attempt to address the underlying issues causing the fall in standards.

For state schools to improve they need to attract the full range of students, not just those that can't afford private education. If the current trend continues, most state schools will become part of a safety net, ending in continued inequity for low SES families.

For the profession to increase in status and output, we need to acknowledge the good work done, manage improvement where necessary and ensure applicants have the capability and training to do a good job. I'll leave it to the experts to manage how these changes can be brought into effect.

Combinations & Permutations on the CAS Classpad330

The factorial(!) button is found in the soft keyboard under the abc tab (hit the up arrow next to 'z' and the '1' turns into a '!' (like with a computer keyboard). It's probably worth looking for (or making) an eActivity to speed it up a little.

Going through the first two 3C exercises in Saddler, the easiest way I've found to use the calculator is to open the softkeyboard, press cat tab, scroll to N (using the alphabet at the base of the softkeyboard), highlight nCr, press INPUT and seperate the n & r values with a comma from the hard keyboard.

(Update 1/2/2009): One of my students found another way via softkeyboard->mth tab-> calc->nCr which is a lot simpler and nPr is also there!

When you need to use multiple functions just rehit the INPUT button with nCr still highlighted. Completed the whole of 3C Ex 1A & B with a combination of no calculator and this function.

viola!

I don't have my calculator books here, so this will have to do until I get back to school.

Here's a link to an index of other CAS calculator posts.

Expectations of low SES students

Low expectation is something that can be easily reinforced. It can be environmental (like praising effort instead of achievement), it can be by omission (such as not making information public that would promote academic behaviour), it can be through antisocial behaviour (such as allowing bullying of academic kids) or peer associated pressures (such as girls not wanting to appear smart).

The challenge for the community, schools, teachers and parents is to prevent these negative re-enforcers.

I ask parents of friends how their students are doing and they have no idea whether they are good enough to attempt university. I get comments like - "they're getting level 'x' whatever that means - the comments from teachers are always very positive!". Parents can help motivate students without accurate information about their student. Our PC reports are doing them a disservice.

I asked lower school students how many of our students make it to university each year. The predominant response was zero to four students. The actual number is between 20 and thirty or nearly 2/5 of the cohort that stays until year 12.

The majority of students, at year 8/9, actually think that university is unobtainable. The scarier fact was in a middle school environment middle school teachers rarely teach upper school classes and can't recognise the students that need to be informed, coached and supported into university pathways.

When I asked yr 10/11 students, "What classroom scores were needed to enter university?", they answered 80+. This is not only an unrealistic target for many students but also plainly wrong, it is far lower for the majority of courses.

When I sat with teachers and we looked at standardised testing scores and sought to identify potential yr 9 students for university pathways, no-one (including me) had any idea what we could call a benchmark score before considering student attitude, school results and work ethic to start the process of identifying university bound students. We will figure it out more accurately over a number of years (if tests are kept standard) because we are interested but what of the teachers that are classroom cohort focused instead. They will rediscover similar information by the end of the year.

I start my masters this week (all going well) and the broad topic I have chosen to investigate is: "What tools are available to identify university bound students, what programmes are available to guide students into university and how effective are they for low socio-economic students?"

If you have any ideas, I would love to hear about them and include them in my research. I look forward to hearing from you!