Views & Opinion
Don’t panic – trust the practitioners to make assessment without
levels work Comment by Dirk Foch, Managing Director, Renaissance Learning
The Government’s decision to
delay the publication of the Life After Levels Commission report until the autumn, has provoked cries of disappointment among primary school teachers. Many schools have been holding off making decisions on their response to the end of levels until they’d had a chance to see the advice of the commission. Ministers are urging schools to abandon levels from September but research from the British Education Suppliers Association reveals that almost half of primary schools have yet to make alternative arrangements. So in the absence of expert advice what should schools do?
Trust the teachers My advice is “DON’T PANIC”. Assessment without levels isn’t new, schools have been doing this for ever. As the Managing Director for Renaissance Learning, our reading and maths assessment software has supported thousands of schools across the country for more than 15 years, and my advice to policy makers is trust the teaching professionals and to teachers – trust yourselves. Teachers know how to make informed assessments. Of course those assessments need to be consistent and objective. So there is no need for schools to dash out and buy the latest all singing all dancing assessment system. All that is needed is a reliable and standardised test.
Taking ownership of class data One school that has adopted this mixed method approach is Sir William Burrough, an outstanding primary school in one of the most deprived areas of East London.
It uses the STAR test to provide
reliable data on the progress of pupils but teachers are encouraged to take ownership of class data and make their own decisions based on their individual professional judgements. The Head Teacher, Avril Newman, explained the logic of her approach to me recently “If you over-monitor and demand a certain standard, you will get precisely that standard and nothing more. Whereas if you trust, and simply ask that, say, a Year 4 teacher’s job is to convert Year 3s into Year 5s, the sky is the limit and people will give you far more than if you simply give them a checklist of ‘things that you must do.'”
Fast, accurate assessment My fear is that some schools are responding to the uncertainty by burdening over stretched teachers still more with bureaucracy. There’s no need for this. All that’s required for assessment that is fast, accurate and tailored to the needs of pupils and teachers, is standardised testing to ensure you have an objective and data driven way of qualifying the expert judgements of teachers.
16
www.education-today.co.uk Data loss is the biggest IT risk
to the education sector Comment by Jeff Hart, Regional Sales Manager UK & Ireland at Acronis
Over recent years the use of
data in the education sector has spiked drastically, with data in schools rising between 11 to 50 per cent in the last 12 months. With this growth of information comes an increase in risk to staff and pupils if data is lost. Under the Data Protection Act 1998, schools have a legal obligation to keep personal information secure, ensuring safe archival, storage and disposal of their data. The Act specifies correct arrangement and storage of electronic data and also safe back up of data for administrative, legal or financial purposes.
The data threat With healthcare, telecommunications, government and banking sectors being at the forefront of the public’s minds in terms of using extensive data, the education division is somewhat overshadowed in terms of calling for data security and backup measures. However, recent research has highlighted a significant lack of action being taken, considering the costly consequences to educational institutions. Acronis’ study of the education sector has revealed 49 per cent of head teachers and education leaders stated data loss was the biggest threat to their organisation’s data. However, the problem is compounded as 40 per cent of these education authorities stated they only use a hard drive to back up their data. These statistics demonstrate the sector is taking a huge risk with its records using obsolete data backup approaches and technology.
Severe consequences If an institution only uses a standard hard drive to back up their data, confidential documents are under threat of being lost through corruption, fire or flood damage or theft. Once the data on the hard drive is lost there is no chance of recovering files. Sensitive personal data such as names of staff and students, addresses, financial records, grades, medical information and exam results are documents that could take months to replace, throwing schools and colleges into chaos. The effect of data backed up solely on one hard drive can clearly
affect hundreds of people and breed distrust between education authorities and their staff and pupils if data is not secured appropriately. This problem is only going to expand and leave schools more at risk in the future. Education leaders, from primary to university, can benefit from evaluating their current approach to backup and identify steps they should take to alleviate this risk.
The backup solution The education sector needs to consider the effect of data loss on their institutions and re-evaluate better ways of backing up important information. There are various solutions to consider such as migration to a cloud environment, replicating data and most importantly, putting data protection plans into place. By using specific software to target backup, disaster recovery and secure access solutions, head teachers can reassure staff and students their personal information is being protected. .
September 2015
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