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Teachers should control testing, says educator

March 16, 2005

trevor_bond_thumb.jpgStandardised testing in our schools should be in the hands of classroom teachers, not Head Office administrators, according to a prominent Australian educator.

Associate Professor Trevor Bond, a Visiting Fellow at the University of New England, is critical of what he calls Australia’s “growing fascination” with American-style, centrally-administered standards testing in schools. He believes that if such tests are to be of any educational value, they should be in the hands of teachers to use when they see a need, not centrally administered (as at present) “to all children on such-and-such a day at such-and-such a time”.

In arguing his point, Dr Bond (from the School of Education, James Cook University) proposes an analogy with the health system. “Would medical practitioners be happy if the invigilators of the health system owned all the powerful medical tests while doctors were forced to resort to the diagnostic practices of folk medicine?” he asks. “Of course not; all but the most esoteric of diagnostic tests are routinely available to GPs, even when the costs are high.”

Australia’s “fascination” with standardised testing is fuelled by an apparent dissatisfaction, at the government level, with educational outcomes. Dr Bond finds this dissatisfaction unreasonable, as the most reliable comparisons (based on the principles of the Rasch measurement model, on which he is an international authority) invariably show that Australian standards are among the highest in the world. “In the light of these continuing high international rankings,” he comments, “it would be nice if the Education Minister could say why the Government remains critical of school achievement standards in Australia.”

In comparison the United States, which has gone much farther than Australia down the road of standard testing, has a much lower ranking than Australia. “In spite of this,” Dr Bond says, “we seem now to be emulating them educationally, as we do politically.”

One of his main objections to centrally-administered tests is their lack of immediate diagnostic feedback, as it often takes months for teachers to get the test results. “If teachers themselves were trusted to administer the tests,” he says, “they would see immediately where any remedial measures were necessary. As it is, the results merely summarise (in most cases too late) what has already happened.” While in Armidale Dr Bond has raised these issues and conducted research workshops with members of the National Centre of Science, Mathematics and ICT Education for Rural and Regional Australia (which is based at UNE), and with other members of UNE’s School of Education.

He points with approval to the recent experience in New Zealand, where the teachers’ union opposed the introduction of national standards. The New Zealand Government responded by funding the development of scientific testing systems for use by classroom teachers. (These are now widely used, voluntarily by teachers, throughout New Zealand.) Describing himself, in the Australian context, as “a lone disciple in the desert”, he says: “I just want to give teachers direct access to the essential tools to enhance children’s educational opportunities.”


Media contact: Associate Professor Trevor Bond on 0412 099 668 or Jim Scanlan (UNE Public Relations) on (02) 6773 3049.
The photograph of Dr Bond displayed here is available from Jim Scanlan on (02) 6773 3049.

Posted by Jim Scanlan at March 16, 2005 11:50 AM