Grieving quietly…

As I write this post, I am grieving quietly… I have listened this week to the political announcements about schools, teachers and teaching, and have been grieving for my profession. Along with so many in teaching, I have given my life to education. The majority of teachers are committed, genuine, hardworking, thoughtful, reflective and determined professionals. This week I waited in vain for a genuine acknowledgement of these teachers and the difficult role they play in today’s society.

I fear that this grand policy, announced with much gusto and fanfare, will serve to alienate good teachers further. I am also perturbed about how easy it is to kill the messengers – for it is teachers and school staff who honestly facilitate the testing regime and originally had great faith in its ability to identify the children who needed genuine help to achieve functional literacy and numeracy. Have teachers been sacrificed at the alter of political convenience?

I fear this is the year that the use of benchmark results has taken on a life of its own. What was originally touted as a ’snapshot’ of student abilities will be the future standard for principal and teacher sackings and for comparisons between schools (a process similar to comparing chalk and cheese). Someone please correct me if I am wrong in my interpretation. Will this year also go down in history as the start of a mass exodus of teachers who have submitted to the imposition of arbitrary guidelines judging their quality - yet industrially are amongst the lowest paid of professionals, are still battling for simple things like permanency of employment and all the rights inherent in that status, and are stil responsible for fundraising in fetes and cake stalls for essential equipment for their schools…

I acknowledge that there are an increasing number of children failing to achieve minmal literacy and numeracy benchmark standards. At a conservative estimate of 15% of children in any school – but estimated by many teachers to be as high as 65% in some schools - 77000 children is a significant statistical figure who are failing to learn, and therefore failing to achieve the minimal level (benchmark) of literacy and numeracy acquisition… And let’s not mince words here: right now, today, there are at least 77000 reasons why the Federal government feels they need to take this action.  

But where are the analyses of every single one of those children as to WHY they are failing? Where are the interviews with parents about what they know about their child and his/her learning potential and struggles? Where are the health (physical, mental and emotional), eye-sight and hearing tests of these children? Where are the assessments by the occupational therapist (gross and fine motor skills, visual perception and processing, crossing mid-line, etc) and speech pathologist (receptive and expressive language, phonological awareness, auditory processing and perceptual skills, etc)?  Where is the teacher notation about the child’s first language of home and community, the child’s previous learning history and potential for achievement of functional literacy and numeracy in English? Where are the social workers’ comments about the family, and its potential to support a child to achieve literacy and numeracy? All far too hard…

An analysis of the testing regime itself might have been appropriate to gauge if the guidelines, content, administration and analytical processes are just, fair, valid, appropriate and adequate. Does a quantitative process adequately explain the qualitative nature of schools, teaching and learning? Are 77000 children the direct result of inadequate, faulty and poor teaching and inept teachers?

We spend a lot of time at 5energies building up a picture of each child, long before the test takes place: the earlier the better. We look at ten domains (on a fifty point scale) to see why a child cannot access learning and we work darned hard to ensure that teachers, those in the front-line, have this information for themselves. It really need not be that hard, to find ways to upskill teachers and make sure they have the evidence to show improvements, and the strategies to cater for the genuine needs of each child.

Is it only me who was so saddened this week?