Guest Post - Are Exams Getting Easier? A Leaving Certificate Rant!

This guest post is written by fellow Frog Blogger Jeremy Stone. Jeremy explores grade inflation in the Leaving Cert and asks what really is the true purpose of our education system. 

As a teacher, this has been the most successful year of my life - at least in terms of the exam success of my pupils (as was last year... and the year before that... and the year before that...). Indeed if we use overall exam performance as the arbiter of academic success then, each succeeding year, pupils all over the world must be working harder and harder, and must be getting increasingly more intelligent (perhaps it’s something in the water).

In the UK the A-Level pass rate rose in 2010 for the 18th year in a row, and overall GCSE results improved for the 23rd year running. In Ireland research by Martin O’Grady (of Tralee I.T.) compares Leaving Certificate grades in 1992 and 2006, and finds a very strong case for grade inflation. For each of the 24 comparable Higher Level subject exams there was an overall 55% increase in the percentage of A and B grades achieved in 2006 – compared with 1992. The level of A1s awarded overall increased by over 300% during the same period. The increases in achievement at Ordinary Level are even higher.

Budget 2010 - Cuts to Education Never Heal

As the government look to make at least €3 Billion in savings in their December budget, through tax increases and a significant reduction in public spending, they must resist the urge to make any cuts in education and, if possible, look to increase funding in this sector. While potential cuts look like an easy option, they go against publicised government policy and could damage our economic recovery and international reputation.

Smart Economy

The government's economic and job creation plans are based around the development of a knowledge based "smart" economy, centred around the formation of jobs in science, engineering, manufacturing, as well as research  and development. To attain the ambitious goals outlined in their policy document, significant investment must be made in education, particularly in secondary education (science and maths), third level (university sector) and in continued education and training (ideally through some other organisation instead of FÁS). The government's own policy document on the formation of the smart economy states that "Ireland is already laying the foundations of the ideas economy by investing significantly in education". However, the recent OECD report contradicts their assertions.

OECD Report

The recently published OECD annual "Education at a Glance" report suggests that in 2007 Ireland was spending just 4.7% of its income on education, placing us 30th out of the 33 OECD countries. The average spend was 5.7%. The report also shows that from 1995 to 2007 the proportion of GDP that went to education in Ireland fell by half a percentage point and, at the height of the boom, Ireland was spending significantly less of a proportion of its income on education compared to other OECD countries. The most significant disparity occured in the third level sector, with Ireland only spending 1.2% of income in this area, 0.3% below the average. The report continued to pluck holes in the governments retoric - Irish class sizes are amongst the highest in the OECD and second highest in the EU and that 39% of Irish teachers receive no evaluation on work performance, the highest of all OECD countries. (For the full report, click here.) Of course, the report does not include the dramatic cuts in education seen in last year's budget, which saw funding for free books for poor children withdrawn in 90% of schools, equipment and resource grants for resource teachers working with special needs children abolished, funding of €4.3m for Traveller children slashed, €2.1m gone from school library grants and pupil teacher ratios increase across all schools. So government policy and action clearly don't match up. These facts highlight that we need to increase funding in education in Ireland, and most certainly not make further cuts.

Recommended Apps- UCAS

For pupils applying to the UK for a university place it might seem that all their time is taken up with the exhausting process that is a UCAS application. Waiting for a decision can be nerve wracking but now there is an app for the iPhone and iPod Touch that makes tracking your application easy and mobile. You can only use the app once your application has been processed but it has many useful features. You can easily see which universities have offered you a place, see if further information is needed on your application and view any replies you’ve made. Find out the key dates in the UCAS calendar and get the answers to your questions in the FAQ section. Unfortunately it doesn't have a teachers tracking facility hyet but maybe that might be something they will look at releasing shortly. Best of all the UCAS app is completely free. To download the UCAS app click here.

Teachers! Tweet, Blog, Connect.

What are your new back to school resolutions? For me, it's learning to organise my time more effectively and to prioritise! It's the same resolution made every September but this year will be different - I'm sure of it! But can I be so bold as to make some suggestions for your back to school resolutions: Tweet, Blog, Connect!

What is Twitter? Twitter is a micro blogging social network which allows users write short snappy messages (just 140 characters) which then appear on the user's profile page (Click here to see mine). Users follow other people on Twitter who may be friends or have similar interests. Sounds kinda pointless until you see how tweets can allow you share resources, web-links, videos, photos, interesting stories or classroom tips. It's an excellent way to expand your view on how your subject can be taught and to connect with other teachers from around the world. I would go as far as saying that Twitter is an essential tool for newly qualified teachers. We all know the web is a brilliant resource and Twitter allows you to share the best of the web with like minded people. It is so simple to join and start tweeting. Just visit Twitter.com and get stuck in. You might find it useful to follow these teachers to start connecting: Me, Patricia Donaghy, Julia Thompson, Maryna Badenhorst, Pajo, ScoilNet, Nicole Galante and Julian Girdham (from SCC English) to name but a few. Here are few useful links on how Twitter can help you become a better teacher: here and here.

Standards in Maths and Science

Since the publication of this year's Leaving Certificate results on Wednesday, numerous commentators and multi-national companies have been commenting on the low standards in mathematics and science amongst this year's cohort. They are saying that the failure rates for maths and science subjects is unacceptably high and that this will have an negative effect on the government's plans for the development of a "smart economy". Such a smart economy is based around the facilitation of science, engineering and manufacturing companies employing well educated and well trained Irish graduates. This is a significant issue, but there is a clouding of the facts which needs to be addressed.

It is true to say that the numbers sitting Leaving Cert maths at higher level is too low. It is also fair to say that the failure rates in maths are too high. But I have a level of sympathy for the Department of Education and Skills on this issue. Firstly, maths is a compulsory subject at Leaving Cert level and the standards set are very high - comparable with Scottish Highers but slightly below the standards of A-Level (where pupils sit only three subjects) or International Baccalaureate (IB). This means that when comparing the results obtained by Irish pupils in mathematics with those in English, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales or those sitting the IB, Irish pupils simply won't match up, as none of these system require compulsory mathematics in their terminal exams. Ireland is very much the exception rather than the norm in insisting on all pupils sit mathematics. In the UK, only 77,000 of the 310,000 pupils (around 24%) sitting A-Levels did mathematics, of which over a ridiculous 40% achieved an A grade (an A grade in Ireland is reserved for pupils obtaining 85% or above while in the UK a pupil achieving over 70% obtains an A grade). You simply cannot compare the two. If maths was to be made optional at Leaving Cert level, I am sure our standards would compare much more favourably with our nearest neighbours. Project Maths, the new initiative piloted this year, did produce slightly higher percentages of A grades and lower failure rates - but I think everyone expected that to happen. Whether this was because of a better understanding of the principles or a more lenient marking scheme, I don't know, but I do welcome a more practical and relevant approach to teaching and learning about mathematics. 

Recommended Apps - Awesome Note

Teachers return to the classroom shortly and will soon be neck high in homework to read, copies to correct, tests to mark, phone calls to make, emails to send and some might even have blogs to write (go on - get blogging with your pupils this September). All this means that busy teachers will need to get organised and Awesome Note is a brilliant app for the iPhone that will help you do just that.

Awesome Note is an innovative note taking application and "to-do" manager that allow you to combine notes with to-do flexibility. Users are able to customise how they want their notes categorised by creating different folder icons, which can be further customised with colours, fonts and backgrounds. The app is very versatile allowing you create simple scheduled notes to notes with photo attachments, To-Do's to organise your day and post-it style quick "memos" to quickly jot down your thoughts. You can even send notes with photos as emails to friends and colleague and synchronise your notes to Google Docs or your Evernote account. Awesome Note allows you easily jot down your ideas, thoughts and memos, and create daily diary, travel diary, email box, checklist, shopping list, to-do list, scheduler and anything else you want and sort them into custom categories. You can even protect some folders using passwords (I have a very handy PIN's & Passwords folder).

To download Awesome Note click here. The full version costs just €2.99, but you can download a free "lite" version to trial. Click here to download the "lite" version. Awesome Note is an excellent, simple but powerful app that works for me and hopefully it will work for you too.

The Leaving Cert - Should it stay?

Reports in our national newspapers yesterday informed us that pupils sitting the Leaving Certificate are stressed! Shock horror! Who knew? 

Well apparently it took a new ESRI study (working on behalf of the NCCA) to find out that more than half of female Leaving Certificate pupils are stressed out in sixth year compared with about a third of their male peers. This is not news! News, by definition, needs to be new. In fact, I am surprised the figures are so low. It is no secret that pupils undergoing terminal examinations undergo stress - they should be worried - these are important examinations that will very likely have an effect on their future career path. But the same is true of pupils sitting A-Levels, SAT's and even university exams (which I found personally far more stressful than the Leaving Cert). Stress is a universal effect of such examinations and, for many, it can serve to greatly improve study habits and exam performance. Teenagers get stressed for many more reasons other than their Leaving Cert too, and the ESRI study didn't clarify if the stress suffered by these teenagers was solely caused by the Leaving Cert.

But there is a more pressing question around this issue - should the Leaving Cert remain in its current format? The answer is plainly no. Over the last decade or more the Leaving Cert has evolved into a university entry system rather than a measure of the educational process in secondary schools. For this purpose the Leaving Cert succeeds - the CAO system is very fair, unbiased and non-judgemental - far more so than the UCAS system in the UK. The universities set the standards, the pupils apply anonymously and those that meet the standards (generally) get a place. Our university entry system is good and only requires tinkering - like increased use of aptitude tests and interviews. The "points system" is not the problem here. We need to change how the points are calculated not the entry system itself. 

Counting the Cost of "Free" Education

I'm sure by now every pupil and teacher is getting slowly excited about the prospect of returning to school in a couple of weeks. The little ones are surely deciding which school bag to get - Ben 10 or Hannah Montana - and whether or not a new set of colouring pencils are required. Some are excited because maybe they'll have Mr. Jones for biology? Others will groan at the prospect! My fellow teachers are probably ordering their new mark books, purchasing new whiteboard markers, new shiny pens (blue, green and red of course) or maybe even a new laptop for those technically minded individuals! Some teachers may be deciding what to teach their new class groups in the first term while other will follow the "whatever worked for me last year" rule! Either way, there is a level of excitement about returning back to school, even if we don't really want to admit it!

But for Mammy and Daddy it is surely more of a stress. The Ben 10 or Hannah Montana back packs don't come cheap. Those new colouring pencils are a luxury, not a necessity, and the amount of copies the wee ones go through seems to increase exponentially every year. And then there are those horrid textbooks which can't be passed from kid number one to kid number two because in the three years between them, three more "new" editions have been released - each new edition costing €40 or so. For little Johnnie sitting ten subjects in his Junior Cert next June that €400! Oh, but don't forget the workbooks - he'll need those for his homework! Add another €50 to the bill! And damn puberty too - because little Johnnie isn't so frickin little any more! New trousers, new jumper, new white shirts, new tie (oh he lost it during the summer), new shoes and a year's supply of deodorant to last through September! All this adds up. By now Mammy and Daddy are wondering what exactly is "free education" because surely they have spent close to €1000 on each of the kids. Then comes the kick in the teeth - the school voluntary contribution. Bam, another €200 or so. In fact, a recent Bank of Ireland survey suggested that the annual cost of sending a secondary pupil to school over the entire year comes to nearly €13,000. Private fee paying boarding schools seem rather good value now don't they?