The Choice Channel

“Teaching to national curriculum tests is ruining pupils’ futures and leaving them unprepared for the world of work, says a report released today by a group of MPs.The Labour-dominated Commons Select Committee for Children, Schools and Families warns that the ‘inappropriate focus’ by teachers on test results could rob pupils of a well-balanced education …. The MPs, however, stop short of calling for an end to national curriculum tests — taken by all pupils at the ages of seven, 11 and 14 — saying that they find the arguments in favour of a system of national testing to be ‘persuasive.’ Instead, they say, it is the uses to which the test results are put — such as drawing up league tables of primary schools’ test results and the targets set for individual schools’ performance — that need a drastic revision. ‘The drive to meet government targets has too often become the goal rather than the means to the end of providing the best possible education for all children,’ they argue. ” (05/14/08)