Labour must reject Goves's approach in its entirety

Bogstandard's picture
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Click through for a comprehensive critique of Michael Gove's approach on the New Statesman site. In summary:

 



  1. False claims for the success of academies have been swallowed whole by an uncritical media, the government and the Labour opposition.

  2. Vocational/academic splits are invalid and undesirable pre-16.

  3. The C grade at GCSE has been corrupted by leagues tables and is not a reliable indicator of attainment. Its high stakes status distorts the curriculum and degrades the learning process.

  4. GCSE grade inflation is of such a scale that the GCSE system is no longer fit for the purposes for which it is used.

  5. Pupil cognitive ability is continuously variable and drives academic attainment in any valid exam system.

  6. School intakes vary enormously in average cognitive ability therefore schools cannot be judged on the basis of aggregate pupil exam results.

  7. Floor targets and OfSTED judgements based on them have no statistical validity.

  8. The false claims for the success of academies are based on exploiting easy vocational qualifications and/or admissions based on IQ type tests.

  9. Teaching methods have been corrupted by league tables.

  10. A return to behaviourist approaches of teaching to the test, cramming, repetition and revision is stunting the cognitive development of pupils and corrupting learning.

  11. League tables are making our kids dimmer and are causing the real decline in educational standards picked up by the internationalPISAtests.

  12. A future exam system should be graded on the basis of cognitive challenge in all subjects and promote teaching methods that engage and develop pupils' interests, attainment and development.

  13. The aim of the education system should be to raise attainment of all pupils of all abilities across the full grade range through a broad and balanced curriculum and by the use of teaching methods that promote cognitive development.

  14. This requires genuinely all-ability comprehensive schools operating in a co-operative locally managed system.

  15. Current Labour education policies do not address the key issues and are based on false assumptions.

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