News
2008; Oxford University Press; Volume: 5; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1111/j.1740-9713.2008.00301.x
ISSN1740-9713
Tópico(s)Educational Systems and Policies
ResumoSignificanceVolume 5, Issue 3 p. 98-99 NewsFree Access News First published: 28 August 2008 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1740-9713.2008.00301.xCitations: 1AboutSectionsPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Stats of SATs The government has described this years SATs exams and results as “statistically sound” despite widespread disquiet that they may be seriously misleading. The SATs Key Stage 2 exams test English schoolchildren at the age of 11. The government released nationwide results in August, in the face of continuing disputes over marking standards, late, unmarked and missing papers, and children recorded as absent from the tests even though they had in fact taken them. The decision to release the results, despite their being labelled “provisional”, has been heavily criticised. The National Association of Head Teachers said that the release “beggared belief”. The results reported that one child in four failed to reach the required standard in maths, with one in five below the expected level in English. However, many believe that the true level may be much lower than that. Dissatisfaction with SATs as an indicator of pupil abilities is widespread. A survey by Civitas, an independent right-wing pressure group, claimed that 9 out of 10 secondary school teachers say they cannot rely on SATs. The concept of the test itself is flawed, they say. This is in addition to dissatisfaction over its administration and marking. ETS, the American company that successfully bid for the £156 million five-year contract to administer the tests, had failed to mark some 5000 of the tests, from around 460 schools, by the beginning of August. A record number of appeals have been lodged against those papers that have been marked. The Civitas survey, conducted by telephone between July 8th and 24th this year, was of 107 secondary school teachers who taught in year 7 in maintained schools in England (SATs were abandoned as unsatisfactory several years ago in both Wales and Scotland). Of the secondary school teachers surveyed, 90% found the Key Stage 2 SATs results to be inconsistent with pupils’ true abilities; 79% reported that their year 7 year-groups’ abilities had been lower than their Key Stage 2 SATs results had indicated. Results, they say, have been artificially inflated by “teaching to the test”, making SATs meaningless as a guide. Civitas claim that nearly two-thirds of secondary schools re-tested pupils themselves on entry, to obtain a result they could trust. The SATs tests, they say, fail to identify a child's potential. Kakadu National Park, Northern Australia – climate change brings an end to the savanna. Photo: Thomas Schoch A further criticism is that reforms to marking procedures, introduced by ministers this year, make it impossible to compare standards from year to year, which was one of the main reasons for which SATs were introduced in the first place. But Martin Ward, of the Association of School and College leaders, criticising the need of SATs for this purpose, said “If you want to know how a system is performing, you only need to test a sample, not every 11- and 14-year-old in the country.” The Department for Children, Schools and Families has defended the exam and the decision to release the results. “Test results are reliable”, said their spokesman. “Independent statisticians made the decision to publish the results, independent quality watchdog Ofqual provides assurance about test standards, and independent education watchdog Ofsted says ‘the data is extremely helpful in evaluating schools’ effectiveness'. Standards in our schools are rising, and we do not accept that this is a result of teaching to the test.” Anastasia de Waal, author of the report that accompanied the Civitas survey, said: “Stage 2 SATs is vanity testing, so that government can feel good about what is happening in primary schools and show that results are improving. But it is expensive for primary schools, not trusted by secondaries, and is damaging for children.” In the wake of the marking fiasco, negotiations are taking place between ETS and the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority over the future of the contracts for administering SATs. Blame climate change, not buffalo Kakadu National Park, Australia's premier wildlife reserve in the north of the country, is being transformed by global climate change. A team from the University of Tasmania has used advanced statistical analyses to show that the proliferation of woody plants, which has taken place in the last 50 years within Kakadu's savannah landscape, and which has transformed sections of treeless floodplains into tracts of scrub, is caused by climate change1. It had been thought that the increase in woodland cover was due to the elimination of feral water buffalo, which roamed unchecked until control measures were introduced in the 1980s. But sequences of aerial photographs, dating back to 1964, have established that the buffalo control programme merely coincided with the dramatic expansion of woody plants and were not its cause. Instead, statistical analysis of the photographs showed that the areas of greatest increase of tree cover were not those where buffalo had roamed, but were next to already-existing areas of woody growth. The cause of the expansion is related to a trend of increased rainfall in northern Australia and possibly to the “fertiliser effect” of increased atmospheric carbon dioxide, which favours growth of woody plants over that of tropical grasses. The rate of increase of woody vegetation has accelerated over the last 50 years because woody patch growth increases in a compound fashion. The study is important as it shows the pervasive effects of global change on regional ecosystems. The expansion of woody plants is degrading the wildlife habitat quality of Kakadu National Park's iconic wetlands, particularly for water birds that need treeless conditions. However, this particular effect of climate change may be transitory. The International Panel on Climate Change has identified the Kakadu freshwater floodplains as being at risk of destruction during this century in any case due to rising sea levels—yet another effect of global warming. Is she happy or sad? Conflicting news about half the human race. A survey of 10 000 men and women, reported in July, found that women become happier than men as they grow older, and more optimistic. In youth and middle age they have to look after their families, said the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing; past 50, they are free of such burdens and worries and the quality of their life improves. The research was carried out by University College London, so it should be authoritative; and it was reported in the Daily Mail, so it must be true. But a study of 1000 women, reported in August, found that older women become more grumpy and miserable, and end up less happy than men. Their happiest years are behind them. If they have been married, they may now be divorced; earlier dreams of wealth may no longer be realisable. Beyond the age of 48 women are the sadder sex, while men start to enjoy the best years of their lives. This survey comes from the University of Southern California, which also sounds authoritative; and it also was published in the Daily Mail, so it must also be true. So with increasing age women become either the happier sex, or the sadder. You pays your money and you takes your choice. ….and how to make her happy Meanwhile, a survey of still more women comes to a conclusion we can possibly all believe in. It was carried out by Woman and Home magazine, so carries less academic weight, but it seems less contentious, and rather more believable, than the others, and rather more heartwarming as well. It asked 1000 women, mostly married, what gave them most pleasure in life. The answer, very happily, was: their husbands. Forty percent of the women said that time spent with their husbands was what they valued most. A mere 5% said that material goods were the most valuable things in their lives. So diamonds aren't a girl's best friend; her husband is. (A note to happily married men about to preen themselves: what the respondents most enjoyed with their husbands was not making love, but a romantic candlelit dinner. Go book that restaurant now.) Mamma mia! Economy down, hem-lines up Economists have used various measures to gauge the strength of the economy. Besides the Dow Jones and the FTSE100, well-known is the Hemlines Index, which says that markets rise and fall with skirt lengths. It was devised by economist George Taylor, who first pointed out the correlation between financial well-being and skirt lengths: markets rose during the 1920s, when the flappers shocked the nation by shortening their skirts; during the Great Depression in the 1930s hemlines went down. The 1960s saw huge economic woes in Britain—and the maxi-skirt displaced for a while the mini. A second, equally valid, market indicator has now appeared: the Abba Economic Index. Consider the data. Waterloo, Fernando, Dancing Queen took over our lives in the 1970s—as did the three-day week and rocketing inflation. Recession struck in the early 1990s—just as Abba Gold: Greatest Hits topped the UK charts in 1992. And now, sub-prime mortgages have thrust us all into economic melt-down—and Mamma Mia, the film based on Abba's hit songs, is storming the box-offices. The conclusion is clear: the more we listen to Abba, the worse the financial outlook. The correlation is exact. And the way out of economic gloom? Go into the attic. Find those old Abba albums and destroy them. Don't listen to Abba any more. Economic recovery will follow. You know it makes sense. References 1Bowman, D. M. J. S. et al. (2008) Do feral buffalo explain the increase of woody cover in savannas of Kakadu National Park, Australia? Journal of Biogeography, doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2699.2008.01934.x. Google Scholar Citing Literature Volume5, Issue3September 2008Pages 98-99 ReferencesRelatedInformation
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