Principals voice concerns over standardised tests

THE testing of second-level students’ reading and maths ability should not be used for the wrong purposes, a schools’ leader has warned.

Patricia O’Brien, the president of the National Association of Principals and Deputy Principals (NAPD), said there are concerns about the introduction of testing of students in second and fifth years, planned under the national literacy and numeracy strategy published in July.

Such tests are already used in primary schools, allowing teachers and principals to monitor standards.

Ms O’Brien said it is the interpretation of results that can cause most concern, as happened after Irish teenagers’ dwindling rankings in reading and maths emerged from the most recent international test results last year.

This was a strong theme aired at a major conference attended by NAPD in August, where, she said, concerns were heard from other countries about using test results to decide on punitive measures, funding allocations or teacher promotions, or for the media to rate schools without the context of non-academic values.

“Standardised tests do not assess everything that is worth testing. The recurring message [at the conference] was ‘test what you value and don’t just value what you test’.”

But Education Minister Ruairi Quinn said standardised tests have a part to play in helping schools monitor and improve students’ learning.

“I am not interested in testing for the sake of uninformative and misleading league tables. But neither am I satisfied with the current situation, where parents and the educational system are largely uninformed about children’s progress,” he said.

Mr Quinn told principals that all the possible measures he has put forward to Public Expenditure and Reform Minister Brendan Howlin as part of his comprehensive spending review would involve a difficult decision.

Like other ministers, his spending cuts are restricted to non-pay issues because the Croke Park deal protects the salaries of public servants.

While this has fuelled speculation that teacher numbers may have to be cut, Ms O’Brien urged him not to further increase pupil-teacher ratios.

She said the additional 33 hours per year that principals can require of teachers outside school hours under the Croke Park Agreement has allowed all parent-teacher meetings to be held outside school hours, among other benefits.

However, she said that one of the challenges to arise has been how to deal with the crankiness of a few teachers about two additional hours’ work after or before school.