Teacher Ethics in Assessment: Resource Slides # 1

The Problem with Performance Indicators

Paul E. Newton13 March 2015

Tests as performance indicators

“From this enlarged perspective, which is supported by qualitative sociological studies of how public statistics get created, I come to the following pessimistic laws (at least for the U.S. scene): The more any quantitative social indicator is used for social decision-making, the more subject it will be to corruption pressures and the more apt it will be to distort and corrupt the social processes it is intended to monitor.”

(Campbell, 1976, p.49)

Impacts from PIsSmith (1995, in Foley & Goldstein, 2012)

The mechanisms of gamingSmith (1995, in Foley & Goldstein, 2012)

Teaching practice and system credibility

from The Guardian23 May 2012

Teaching practice and system credibility

Association of Teachers and Lecturers (2012). Education staff and pupils under tremendous strain as exam pressure mounts. London: ATL.

Warwick Mansell (2007)... on knights and knaves

“the question is whether pupils and the nation as a whole are well served by a teaching force which must now prioritise results above all else. The scores will rise, but at what cost?”

“hyper-accountability fails to align teachers’ interests with those of their pupils. The knavish consideration for a teacher in these circumstances is to eschew any breadth or depth to teaching, and focus on grade-boosting. But this, as I have argued above, is not to the long-term good of the pupil. It is not how teachers would behave if they were ‘knights’.”

Jon Coles (2012)... on the freedom to choose

Schools and teachers should have the moral courage to focus on genuine strategies for progression:

Literacy and numeracy from the start A focus on teaching and learning Authentic and deep subject teaching ‘As far as possible’ curriculum Depth and rigour of vocational teaching, linked to real labour market

conditions and to employers Rigorous, progression‐focused tracking and support of every

student underpinned by a deep conviction in the possibility of success of every student

Qualification entry strategies and teaching of exam technique in the service of this