Bright pupils 'dragged down'
At least 120,000 bright children are effectively going backwards in secondary schools, prompting fresh fears over the way top pupils are taught.
One child in five who was doing well in some core subjects at the end of primary school failed to make any further progress in the first three years of secondary education, according to figures obtained by the Conservatives. Many of the top performing pupils at 11 actually did worse by the age of 14.
This is the really interesting part.
Further analysis shows that many exceptionally bright children were at a lower level after three years of secondary school than they were at the end of primary.
Alarmingly, 4,500 sat the Key Stage 2 exam at the age of 11 and achieved the standard expected of the average 14-year-old. But when the same children took the test at the age of 14 they slipped back gaining the score expected of most 11-year-olds.
There are a couple of ways you can interpret this data. The article had the following conclusion:
...blamed poor results on the continued use of mixed ability classes at many state secondary schools, which they say is dragging bright children down.
Another possible explanation is that pushing academics early does not get long term results. If most students score the same at age 14, then why put pressure on your 11 year old to do 14 year old course work?
I do agree that mixed ability classes will slow down the brighter students, but that doesn't explain the decrease in performance by the previously precocious 14 year olds. That sounds like student burn out.
I'm reminded of advice from a parenting book called The Power of Positive Parenting by Glenn Latham. He made the observation that coercive measures may look like they are working at first. However, when the child reaches adolescence, pressuring a child to perform no longer works. How many of the 11 year olds who scored at the 14 year level did so to appease pushy parents and teachers?
This trend toward lower performance is probably the result of more than one factor. Whatever the cause, children in public school, private school, charter school or even (gasp!) homeschool, can fall prey to this phenomenon.
Like Henry mentioned in his recent post, our goal is to instill in our children a love of learning. Children who love to learn will do well on standardized testing and in academic endeavors for the rest of their life. Also, we keep in mind the sooner is not necessarily better.
This news story out of the UK supports my theory.
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Related Tags: Student performance, standardized testing, primary school, secondard school, homeschool
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