feedback, feedforward, Feedup, feeddown lester.flockton@otago.ac.nz
‘Faster, faster,’ demands Ms H Parata. ‘You’ve gotta raise your achievement data.’ ‘But what can we do that will make it so?’ ‘Believe what you’re told by my MoE and my ERO:’ ACCELERATE! ACCELERATE! ACCELERATE! Acceleration is the name of the game, But alas, for some poor kids it’s all in vain. Yes, hardly a day goes by when principals and teachers aren’t being told that they have to ACCELERATE kids learning so that their progress bounces up on the achievement scales. It’s the new panaceatic chant. Or, in the case of ERO, the “urgent” beat in its thing called a RAP (Raising Achievement Plan). And if you don’t care to RAP while ERO says you must, watch out, or you could be in for a rapping regardless!
intensive accelerators. And as with other ill-proven panaceas, we need to be a lot more critical and cautious of the “best evidence” label that has become the habitual marketing promo freely attached to far too many policy packages and mantras such as this. Best evidence all too often needs to be qualified by the words “best available”. Availability of resounding proof is often wafer thin or distant in relevance, with serious implications for system-wide validity of practices and packages promulgated by those distant from the realities of practice! We also need to understand that acceleration is far from new as an educational intervention. It has been around for decades. But throughout those decades it has been singularly directed towards and intended for high ability (gifted) students. It’s about letting them run ahead. According to a major investigation, “A Nation Deceived”, it is ideally suited to academically gifted students
If ERO asks you to develop a Raising Achievement Plan (RAP), it needs to identify what is likely to make the most difference for your children whose learning and achievement need acceleration. (1) We are told the Ministry of Education believes that acceleration will have one of the greatest effects on lifting student achievement for priority learners – Māori, Pasifika, and special needs. As we know, achievement, for the Ministry, its masters and mistresses, refers almost exclusively to the domains and spurious prescriptions of their National Standards. In turn, acceleration is measured by the extent to which children move from well below to below, at or above on the Government’s standards. The Ministry believes acceleration is learning at a “rapid rate” that brings the child’s achievement level to that which is consistent with or beyond its standards. (2) The trouble with this acceleration thing or, more-to-the-point, the fix-it brigade’s irresponsible exaggerations of its efficacy for diverse learners (children or adults), is that it is not a guaranteed, widely applicable, sure-to-rise recipe for hastening gains of longterm permanence and depth for those who struggle. Rather, it is a politically appeasing theoretical model with scant objective research to prove its usefulness and generalisability across a range of situational contexts, cultures, content, and individuals’ diverse learning capabilities and dispositions. Let’s not be naïve by being seduced into believing that Ministry sponsored case studies are justificatory “evidence” for satisfying confidence that most children with linguistic, cognitive, social and experiential deficits can make rapid progress through
who have an enhanced capacity to learn. The scholarly report notes that acceleration does not mean pushing a child to learn advanced material beyond the material they can already manage.
the line, regardless of the quality of teaching? They, too, will be capable of making some progress, albeit perhaps somewhat slow. They too, deserve a full share of the teacher’s time, attention and energy. To deny this is tantamount to unthinkingly playing Indeed it is the exact opposite . . . Acceleration is about the silly appeasement game that has been lumbered upon the matching the level and complexity of profession, all in the cause of raising the curriculum with the readiness and achievement – data! What about those other motivation of the child . . . Acceleration is about respecting individual children who are differences and the fact that some of References not so close to the line, these differences merit flexibility. (3)
While acceleration has a solid research regardless of the ero.govt.nz/how-ero-reviews/acceleratingbase around advancing the prospects of student-achievement-maori/raisinggifted children, its usefulness across a quality of teaching? achievement-planning-guidance-for-schools/ school system for those who fail to reach (2) Ministry of Education: Accelerated the levels of age/stage Government standards is not what it has Learning in New Zealand Primary Schools 2015. www. been proven to achieve, and not what it set out to achieve. For educationalleaders.govt.nz/…/Anthony%20Noble-Campbell%20 a large proportion of children who struggle to make typical -%20accelerate… progress through the levels, pushing a “strategic” foot on the pedal will not help most of them learn faster or rapidly climb (3) Colangelo, N., Assouline, S.G., and Gross, M.U.M. (Eds). A Nation Deceived. The Templeton National Report on Acceleration the data scale. It is pedagogical nonsense to suggest otherwise. Far too often we hear that classroom teachers are being told www.accelerationinstitute.org/nation_deceived/get_report.aspx by the likes of ERO and Ministry agents to target and focus their energies on accelerating those students who are falling just short of “at” – children who, with more concentrated attention, might just make it. There is a serious professional ethical issue here. What about those other children who are not so close to (1) Education Review Office: http://www.
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