Schools+in+society

Brainstorming ideas for Lit. review and essay.

Measuring success: How will/do schools and society measure success in achieving their aims and purposes?

NAPLAN PIPS Benchmarks & student outcomes student performances/results student attendance, motivation & engagement Parent satisfaction community approval/ reputation of school Teachers, leadership, high standards & expectations

Ruth Goodman & Annette Purton
 * Assignment 2 - Draft of essay. **

**Question**: Measuring success: How will/do schools and society measure success in achieving their aims and purposes? What are the implications for my classroom practice?

__**Sub themes being contemplated for further research and expansion for Assig. 3**__

__How do schools measure success?__ * Naplan testing - growing obsession with NAPLAN results * Student outcomes - schools are judged by results. * Student and parent involvement in school

__How does society measure success (of schools)__ * Student engagement, motivation, attendance * Reputation of school - community approval * Student outcomes * Extra curricula activities * Quality of teachers

__What are the implications for my classroom practice?__ * Students meeting benchmarks & outcomes * Parent satisfaction & approval * Stress on teacher – outcomes of tests * Stress on students to sit the exam

__What is NAPLAN__ * National Assessment Program Literacy and Numeracy - tool that the Commonwealth Government introduced in 2008 to measure and evaluate school performance.

__Value of NAPLAN in education__ * Teachers can identify fundamental gaps in knowledge of individual students or for whole class. * Identify at a school level, areas of the curriculum in need of further teaching. * Set targets for improvement at schools. * Eventually monitor changes in literacy and numeracy standards.

__Implications of NAPLAN__ * Funding allocation – to lower socio-economic schools, underperforming schools. * Reputation of school - Shame struggling schools - Parents can make informed decisions when choosing a school for their child. * Narrowing of the curriculum (The Arts, Science and Language subjects suffer). Teachers can often spend more time preparing students for the exams at the expense of the wider curriculum.

__NAPLAN – ‘My school’ website__ * Publication of NAPLAN results - does not reflect the diverse personalities, backgrounds and talents of students, nor does it reward innovation and creativity. * School comparison

Societies today measure school success through the National testing on numeracy and literacy that students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 undertaken every year in May. These National tests are based on the belief that setting high standards and establishing measurable goals can improve student achievement and educational outcomes...........
 * Draft of Essay for Mylo**
 * Intro???__**

Sub theme - What is NAPLAN NAPLAN testing was introduced in 2008 to replace the various different state and territory literacy and numeracy achievement tests and to identify areas of strength and weakness. The Commonwealth Government believed it would provide the country with a single national assessment, enabling a reliable and uniform set of tests, which can measure and evaluate school performance across the nation (Masters 2010)......................

Sub theme - NAPLAN Testing Education in Australia seems to have become more interested in statistical analysis of National tests in literacy and numeracy than actual education. In 2008 the Australian government introduced National Assessment Program of Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN), a diagnostic tool to measure the level a child is functioning at, in order to give a clear indication of student improvement and learning outcomes. Students undertake these tests nationally during May in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 and results are used to help assess the progress of individual students (ACARA, 2010)..................

Sub theme - 'My School' website ACARA (2010) has recently developed and launched a website called 'My School'. The primary purpose of the 'My School' website is to provide stakeholders with public information about schools and their performance. Stakeholders are able to obtain information about a particular school, such as a schools overall academic results, student population and student attendance rates. The Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (2010) believe that "the 'My School' website introduces a new level of transparency and accountability to the Australian school system". However it is important to point out that when looking at the performance of a school in a particular community to realise that statistics can be greatly affected by the socioeconomic profile of the school and be affected by the current student intake..........

Sub theme - League Tables School principals believe it is now a matter of time before the media begin to rank schools according to their performance and construct league tables to rank the nations schools. They also state that parents should also use more than a website when making decisions about their child's education when choosing a school (Southern Region Principals Conference, 2010). Many schools have been asked to disclose more information about fees, finances, staff and students as a condition to receive federal funding...........