John Carrof the INTO attempts to pre-empt some parental questioning on the planned tests for primary school pupils . . .
When will the tests be done in schools?
These tests will be done in schools at the end of first class or the beginning of second class for seven-year-olds and at the end of fourth class or the beginning of fifth class for 11-year-olds. Each school is free to decide when to carry out these tests but pupils will do them at least twice when they are in primary schools.
What will these tests show?
Teachers test all the time, when they want to introduce a new topic or piece of work to establish where children are at and at the end of teaching a particular topic to see what children have learned.
What makes these tests different is that they show how each pupil does in the test in in comparison to other seven- and 11-year-olds in the country.
The tests will show, for example, a particular child scored as well or better than 75 per cent of all Irish children in English and as well or better than 45 per cent of all Irish children in maths.
Why is that important?
An experienced teacher, particularly a teacher who has taught seven- or 11- year-olds for some years will know very accurately how particular children compare to others and what standard they are achieving in all areas of the curriculum. These tests will simply confirm what they already know.
Other teachers, particularly newly qualified teachers or teachers teaching seven-year-olds for example for the first time may want to use the tests to establish how well a particular child is doing and these tests provide that information.
In one sense it is no different to what doctors do. A doctor of many years experience can, by asking her patient a few seemly straightforward questions, confidently identify the state of her patient's health. Other doctors will look for test results so that they can for example provide the right dosage of tablets to deal with a problem like cholesterol.
Why, in that case, will the tests only be done twice during a child's time in primary school?
The answer to that is that these tests are only one of many forms of testing that take place regularly in primary schools. From the time children start in primary school teachers are testing what they know and how well they are doing. Every day teachers assess how pupils are doing in all aspects of their school work. They do this in many ways, from observing progress and difficulties to using their own tests based on what they have been taught. Using this information, the curriculum is changed and adapted to suit the learners.
At the moment more than 90 per cent of schools are using these tests with some schools using them to test children every year. In particular, these tests are used regularly to select pupils for extra teaching such as learning support where difficulties are identified.
Why are there different practices in different schools?
Primary teachers began using these tests long ago because they found them useful. But because there was no national policy from the Department of Education, different arrangements developed in different schools for conducting the tests and reporting information to parents.
The new proposal will bring some uniformity into the process.
Can parents help their children to do well in the test by getting grinds for them?
Think of it, for example, like a health assessment.
Would any parent with a child's health in mind cut out the junk food and introduce a major fitness regime six months in advance of a health assessment and once it was done let the child go back to the couch and watch the telly all day while feeding them crisps and chocolate. Who's fooling who by doing that?
Most parents feed their children well and make sure they take regular exercise.
Most parents also take a regular interest in their children's work by helping with homework and listening to reading. Parents should not break their routines for these tests. This is not the Leaving Cert for seven-year-olds.
Parents should help their children just as they always do.
Are these tests accurate?
These tests should be treated like pre-election opinion polls. There is a margin of error.
The tests will rate children's performance on a scale of 1 to 100. The vast majority of children will be in somewhere in the middle with much smaller numbers scoring at the very low end of the scale or the very high end of the scale. But it is essential that parents do not jump to conclusions about their children's scores.
For example, on these tests there is no significant difference between a child scoring 5 and a child scoring 19 on this scale. The department must produce information leaflets for parents to explain the tests properly.
In addition, it is important to remember that the tests are only a snapshot of how a child did on a particular day. Children's performance can be affected by many things such as how they are feeling on the day, how tired they are or how nervous they are of any kind of tests.
What won't the tests measure?
They will not measure children's effort or their love of a subject. For example many children for one reason or another can read very well but don't. Other children who perhaps do not read as well, love reading and do so everyday. So it is important to keep all test results in perspective. Test results also need to be kept in perspective because children's academic progress, like their physical growth is uneven.
Testing, if improperly used, labels children, damages self-esteem and lowers expectations. It can distort the curriculum by narrowing teaching and learning. We believe that this proposal will avoid those pitfalls.
Testing must be used properly to record and report progress to parents, identify children's difficulties and inform solutions and not to label children.
Will testing improve school outcomes?
To improve Irish primary education we must continue to build the capacity of each school to fully develop the talents and abilities of all children. To do this, primary school funding must be increased to EU funding levels and our class sizes brought down to EU levels.
The introduction of standardized testing is an important development but it is important to keep this in perspective. There is an old maxim which should be kept in mind, "You'll never fatten a pig by weighing it".
John Carr is general secretary of the Irish National Teachers' Organisation, the trade union representing primary teachers