Schooling without exams
The proposal to scrap the conventional exam and SAT removes part of the instrument dashboard.
Ever thought about driving your car without the speedometer working? Perhaps you can guess your speed or extrapolate it from the rev counter ( something I recall doing in Switzerland after the speedo failed. Cruising alongside other cars I got the kids to look at their speedo reading at differing speeds and we ( temporarily) recalibrated the revs to become miles per hour.
The point; without some form of instrument or assessment how do we accurately measure the performance of a child and adjust the teaching effort accordingly. The proposed testing of 1% of children seems to be a relatively crude sample with high hopes in the accuracy of the measure, rather like saying that random breath tests will as a consequence eliminate drink driving.
Clearly SATs are receiving some criticism and can do with being changed if only to avoid the knowledge limiting teaching to test syndrome. The final arbiter are the results in the formal external exams. Maybe we should ask teachers to design an instrument panel that is an ongoing accurate indication of the final result.
