Primary school literacy results need to be disclosed

[patslatt]

The Department of Education conducts literacy and numeracy multiple choice tests in many primary schools,according to a primary teacher of my acquaintance,possibly confining tests to socially disadvantaged areas. It is not informing the public of the results,however.

While it may not want to disclose results about individual schools,it should disclose aggregated results by geographic area and, probably more important,by socioeconomic characteristics. It would be useful to know how pupils from families on low incomes and schools with a high percentage of such pupils are performing. Complacency is not warranted about any school,however,as data from the UK shows that some middle income school districts can have serious literacy problems. Journalists should use the freedom of information act to force release of the data.

Without publicity on literacy failings,the high level of functional illiteracy of around 23%disclosed in the International Literacy Survey among the mid-1990s Irish adult population may be allowed to persist. Publicity would spur remedial actions where necessary,such as the introduction of literacy coaches and lower class sizes in failing schools,as well as the rapid introduction of a highly effective teaching method known as synthetic phonics which is now being rolled out in the UK.

[Riadach]

I think the worry is league-tabling of the school-system.

[patslatt]

I think the worry is league-tabling of the school-system.

Of greater concern, the Department's culture of secrecy on primary school achievement levels allows the illiteracy problem to be brushed under the carpet.

[freedomlover]

The Department of Education conducts literacy and numeracy multiple choice tests in many primary schools,according to a primary teacher of my acquaintance,possibly confining tests to socially disadvantaged areas. It is not informing the public of the results,however.

While it may not want to disclose results about individual schools,it should disclose aggregated results by geographic area and, probably more important,by socioeconomic characteristics. It would be useful to know how pupils from families on low incomes and schools with a high percentage of such pupils are performing. Complacency is not warranted about any school,however,as data from the UK shows that some middle income school districts can have serious literacy problems. Journalists should use the freedom of information act to force release of the data.

Without publicity on literacy failings,the high level of functional illiteracy of around 23%disclosed in the International Literacy Survey among the mid-1990s Irish adult population may be allowed to persist. Publicity would spur remedial actions where necessary,such as the introduction of literacy coaches and lower class sizes in failing schools,as well as the rapid introduction of a highly effective teaching method known as synthetic phonics which is now being rolled out in the UK.

I don't see why schools in Ireland should blindly follow what schools in the U. Kingdom are doing. Smacks of cultural cringe! Ireland spectacularly outperformed the U. Kingdom in the PISA 2006 reading literacy tests of 15-year-old school children, the results for which were published in December (given below). Ireland came sixth in the world and second in Europe (both EU and non-EU Europe), while the U. Kingdom came nineteeth. So, before adopting teaching practices used in the U. Kingdom, there should first be research into why schools in the U. Kingdom are achieving far worse results in reading literacy than schools in Ireland.

Ireland fared poorly in the rather out-of-date 1995 international adult reading literacy survey (IALS), to which you refer, although not significantly worse than the U. Kingdom and the U. States. In Ireland 22.6% of adults failed the literacy test, compared with 21.8% in the U. Kingdom and 20.0% in the U. States, and over 40% in countries like Italy, Greece and some eastern European countries. However, this survey was carried out 13 years ago, so its no longer a good guide to adult literacy today. The main reason for Ireland's poor results in 1995 was that universal secondary education did not come to Ireland until the late 1960s, compared with the 1940s and 1950s in most other countries, so there were still lots of people in the over-45 age-group in 1995 that had never received secondary education, and so had significantly worse reading literacy than in most other countries. However, the PISA reading literacy results for 2000, 2003 and 2006 show that the recent generations of school-leavers in Ireland have very high levels of reading literacy (sixth in the world and second in Europe in 2006 and something similar in 2000 and 2003). There may well be a case for special measures to improve the reading literacy of older age-groups in Ireland, i.e. those who left school before the late 1960s and so never received secondary education. I'd be in favour of that. However, even if there isn't, the adult literacy problem in Ireland will gradually be taken care of, as the older age-groups die out and the younger generations of school-leavers, with their very high levels of reading literacy as shown in the PISA results, come into adulthood.

results of PISA reading literacy tests in 2006:

[ 1] Korea 556
[ 2] Finland 547
[ 3] Hong Kong-China 536
[ 4] Canada 527
[ 5] New Zealand 521
[ 6] Ireland 517 <<<<<<<<
[ 7] Australia 513
[ 8] Liechtenstein 510
[ 9] Poland 508
[10] Netherlands 507
[11] Sweden 507
[12] Belgium 501
[13] Estonia 501
[14] Switzerland 499
[15] Japan 498
[16] England 496
[17] Chinese Taipei 496
[18] Germany 495
[19] United Kingdom 495
[20] N. Ireland 495
[21] Denmark 494
[22] Slovenia 494
[23] Scotland 493
[24] Macao-China 492
[25] Austria 490
[26] France 488
[27] United States 485
[28] Norway 484
[29] Iceland 484
[30] Czech Republic 483
[31] Hungary 482
[32] Wales 481
[33] Luxembourg 479
[34] Latvia 479
[35] Croatia 477
[36] Portugal 472
[37] Lithuania 470
[38] Italy 469
[39] Slovak Republic 466
[40] Spain 461
[41] Greece 460
[42] Turkey 447
[43] Chile 442
[44] Russian Federation 440
[45] Israel 439
[46] Thailand 417
[47] Uruguay 413
[48] Mexico 410
[49] Bulgaria 402
[50] Serbia 401
[51] Jordan 401
[52] Romania 396
[53] Brazil 393
[54] Montenegro 392
[55] Indonesia 393
[56] Colombia 385
[57] Tunisia 380
[58] Argentina 374
[59] Azerbaijan 353
[60] Qatar 312
[61] Kyrgyzstan 285

[lostexpectation]

didn't they release school inspection reports last week, no much talk of them... i went to the site on the day they were released and it was overloaded

[patslatt]

The Department of Education conducts literacy and numeracy multiple choice tests in many primary schools,according to a primary teacher of my acquaintance,possibly confining tests to socially disadvantaged areas. It is not informing the public of the results,however.

While it may not want to disclose results about individual schools,it should disclose aggregated results by geographic area and, probably more important,by socioeconomic characteristics. It would be useful to know how pupils from families on low incomes and schools with a high percentage of such pupils are performing. Complacency is not warranted about any school,however,as data from the UK shows that some middle income school districts can have serious literacy problems. Journalists should use the freedom of information act to force release of the data.

Without publicity on literacy failings,the high level of functional illiteracy of around 23%disclosed in the International Literacy Survey among the mid-1990s Irish adult population may be allowed to persist. Publicity would spur remedial actions where necessary,such as the introduction of literacy coaches and lower class sizes in failing schools,as well as the rapid introduction of a highly effective teaching method known as synthetic phonics which is now being rolled out in the UK.

I don't see why schools in Ireland should blindly follow what schools in the U. Kingdom are doing. Smacks of cultural cringe! Ireland spectacularly outperformed the U. Kingdom in the PISA 2006 reading literacy tests of 15-year-old school children, the results for which were published in December (given below). Ireland came sixth in the world and second in Europe (both EU and non-EU Europe), while the U. Kingdom came nineteeth. So, before adopting teaching practices used in the U. Kingdom, there should first be research into why schools in the U. Kingdom are achieving far worse results in reading literacy than schools in Ireland.

Ireland fared poorly in the rather out-of-date 1995 international adult reading literacy survey (IALS), to which you refer, although not significantly worse than the U. Kingdom and the U. States. In Ireland 22.6% of adults failed the literacy test, compared with 21.8% in the U. Kingdom and 20.0% in the U. States, and over 40% in countries like Italy, Greece and some eastern European countries. However, this survey was carried out 13 years ago, so its no longer a good guide to adult literacy today. The main reason for Ireland's poor results in 1995 was that universal secondary education did not come to Ireland until the late 1960s, compared with the 1940s and 1950s in most other countries, so there were still lots of people in the over-45 age-group in 1995 that had never received secondary education, and so had significantly worse reading literacy than in most other countries. However, the PISA reading literacy results for 2000, 2003 and 2006 show that the recent generations of school-leavers in Ireland have very high levels of reading literacy (sixth in the world and second in Europe in 2006 and something similar in 2000 and 2003). There may well be a case for special measures to improve the reading literacy of older age-groups in Ireland, i.e. those who left school before the late 1960s and so never received secondary education. I'd be in favour of that. However, even if there isn't, the adult literacy problem in Ireland will gradually be taken care of, as the older age-groups die out and the younger generations of school-leavers, with their very high levels of reading literacy as shown in the PISA results, come into adulthood.

results of PISA reading literacy tests in 2006:

[ 1] Korea 556
[ 2] Finland 547
[ 3] Hong Kong-China 536
[ 4] Canada 527
[ 5] New Zealand 521
[ 6] Ireland 517 <<<<<<<<
[ 7] Australia 513
[ 8] Liechtenstein 510
[ 9] Poland 508
[10] Netherlands 507
[11] Sweden 507
[12] Belgium 501
[13] Estonia 501
[14] Switzerland 499
[15] Japan 498
[16] England 496
[17] Chinese Taipei 496
[18] Germany 495
[19] United Kingdom 495
[20] N. Ireland 495
[21] Denmark 494
[22] Slovenia 494
[23] Scotland 493
[24] Macao-China 492
[25] Austria 490
[26] France 488
[27] United States 485
[28] Norway 484
[29] Iceland 484
[30] Czech Republic 483
[31] Hungary 482
[32] Wales 481
[33] Luxembourg 479
[34] Latvia 479
[35] Croatia 477
[36] Portugal 472
[37] Lithuania 470
[38] Italy 469
[39] Slovak Republic 466
[40] Spain 461
[41] Greece 460
[42] Turkey 447
[43] Chile 442
[44] Russian Federation 440
[45] Israel 439
[46] Thailand 417
[47] Uruguay 413
[48] Mexico 410
[49] Bulgaria 402
[50] Serbia 401
[51] Jordan 401
[52] Romania 396
[53] Brazil 393
[54] Montenegro 392
[55] Indonesia 393
[56] Colombia 385
[57] Tunisia 380
[58] Argentina 374
[59] Azerbaijan 353
[60] Qatar 312
[61] Kyrgyzstan 285

It is only sensible to copy new UK practices,reforms and innovations after allowing for an appropriate period to see if they work. The UK can be our laboratory of sorts,given the similarities between the UK and Ireland and the shared English language.

As for teaching practices,Synthetic Phonics is being introduced in England following the example of Scotland. Tests in primary schools in Scotland found that,compared to other teaching methods such as "Whole Language", literacy levels were advanced by about two years using Synthetic Phonics,a method which require teachers to master about forty synthetic sounds for pronounciation of words. This is an improvement in the traditional Phonics method.

The PISA ranking in reading for Ireland was most impressive but the science ranking was relatively low compared to advanced OECD economies.

Good reading results aside,it is very undesirable that the Department of Education provides virtually no quantitative data on the literacy levels in primary schools. Such secrecy is intolerable in a democracy.

Over the last decade,despite booming tax revenues,the government has often been attacked for not providing sufficient funding for disadvantaged schools and for not replacing cheap prefabs in many primary schools. Will the government properly fund schools in the next few years as it runs out of easy sources of tax revenues? If it neglects to fund primary education to the point that standards deteriorate,the Department's secrecy on primary school literacy would prevent the public from finding this out for at least five years until Junior Cert results became available for the present primary school cohort.