Australia/Enero de 2017/Fuente: The Australian
RESUMEN: Es probable que los niños de seis años de Australia tengan que mostrar sus habilidades de contar, nombrar formas y pronunciar palabras bajo una prueba de «toque ligero» para comprobar su progreso escolar. El ministro de Educación, Simon Birmingham, ha nombrado un panel de cinco personas para desarrollar las nuevas evaluaciones para los estudiantes del primer año. Informarán a los ministros de educación de la nación a mediados de este año. El senador Birmingham ha estado presionando para las pruebas de habilidades después de varios estudios, incluyendo comparaciones internacionales, encontró que los niños australianos se estaban quedando atrás.
Australia’s six-year-olds are likely to have to show off their counting skills, name shapes and sound out words under a “light touch” test to check their schooling progress.
Education Minister Simon Birmingham has appointed a five-person panel to develop the new assessments for Year 1 students.
They’ll report back to the nation’s education ministers in the middle of this year.
Senator Birmingham has been pushing for the skills tests after several studies, including international comparisons, found Australian children were falling behind.
Performance is at best plateauing and the gap between the brightest students and those struggling is growing.
“These skills checks are not expected to be a confronting test but rather a light touch assessment that ensures teachers, parents and schools know at the earliest possible stage if children aren’t picking up reading or counting skills as quickly as they should, enabling them to intervene rapidly,” Senator Birmingham said today.
He says the nation can’t afford to wait any longer to act on turning around declining education results.
The Year 1 tests are likely to be based on assessments used in England that involve children verbally identifying letters and sounds in real and made up words, simple counting, recognising numbers, naming shapes and demonstrating basic measurement knowledge.
The plan was first flagged in the budget last year and is reportedly expected to lead to a shake-up in phonics teaching.
The panel will also consider the best way to implement the tests, including a trial and when and how often they should be conducted.
The teachers union has labelled the tests a distraction from school funding issues.
Australian Education Union president Correna Haythorpe doubts the tests will help lift literacy and numeracy standards without schools also getting resources to help students identified as struggling.
Panel designing Year 1 skills check
* Mandy Nayton – chief executive of Dyslexia-SPELD Foundation
* Pamela Snow – head of the La Trobe Rural Health School, registered psychologist, having qualified originally in speech pathology
* Jennifer Buckingham – education research fellow at Centre for Independent Studies
* Steven Capp – principal, Bentleigh West Primary School, Victoria
* Geoff Prince – director of Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute
* Allason McNamara – maths teacher and president of Australian Association of Mathematics Teachers
Fuente: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/education/literacy-and-numeracy-tests-for-australian-year-1-students/news-story/fa826a1ae116a9a954abb1ff303b37c2
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