OVERALL APPROACH Consultation demonstrated support for A clear - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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“a concerted national effort to achieve world-class literacy and numeracy skills among our children and young people” Ruairí Quinn, TD, Minister for Education and Skills

LITERACY AND NUMERACY FOR LEARNING AND LIFE

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OVERALL APPROACH Consultation demonstrated support for…

• A clear emphasis on literacy and numeracy in the educational system
• The importance of L&N for an individual’s personal development, life

chances and prosperity

• Good L&N skills – good for equity and Irish society
• Need to improve literacy and numeracy standards
• A comprehensive approach from early childhood education to end of

schooling

• Making improvements through a broad range of measures in an

integrated way

• Setting of clearly defined targets and identification of definitive actions

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OVERALL APPROACH The Strategy encompasses…

• Actions relating to

– How we help families and communities to support children’s learning – Improving practice among teachers and early years staff – Enabling principals and deputy principals to lead change and improvement – Making sure curriculum is clear about what we want children and young people to learn – Continued support for students with additional learning needs (special education needs (SEN), high achievers, students for whom English is an additional language (EAL), disadvantaged) – Improving the way we monitor how students learn, using this to inform teaching and improvement

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EARLY CHILDHOOD AND FAMILIES The Strategy includes:

• National public information campaign – role that

parents/communities can play

• Advice and information for parents

www.helpmykidlearn.ie

• Ensuring school improvement plans incorporate actions

to support effective working relationships with parents

• Better information for parents on children’s progress

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EARLY CHILDHOOD AND FAMILIES The Strategy includes:

• Ensure teacher education programmes address role of

parents and how to establish and foster home-school relationships

• Encourage schools and libraries to cooperate to support

literacy in families

• D/CYA evaluations of existing initiatives

– Learn from existing initiatives and disseminate practice – Target funding over time

• Pilot joint inspections of Early Childhood Education and

Care provision

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TEACHERS’ AND EARLY YEARS’ STAFF PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE

Strategy includes:

• Higher entry requirements
• Longer initial teacher education

– 4-year Bachelor of Education – 2-year diploma for primary and post-primary teachers

• Increased time in school-based experience – a

developmental experience

• Major changes to course content to develop student

teachers’ understanding and ability to apply skills in areas such as children’s language acquisition.

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TEACHERS’ AND ECCE STAFF PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE

Strategy includes:

• Mandatory participation in induction programme

for beginning teachers

• Focussed continuing professional development

for teachers on teaching, learning and assessment of literacy and numeracy as part of

• ngoing professional development requirements

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SCHOOL LEADERSHIP Strategy includes:

• Improve understanding and ability of principals

and deputy principals to lead improvements in literacy and numeracy

• Targetted professional development for

principals and deputy principals on

– leading improvements in teaching, learning, assessment of literacy and numeracy – Using assessment to inform improved teaching – Effective school self-evaluation

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CURRICULUM + LEARNING EXPERIENCE Strategy includes

• Revision of English and Irish using learning outcomes

approach (primary and post-primary)

• Supported by examples of what students should be able to

do for English, Irish and Maths – to inform teaching

• Phased revision of curriculum with Irish as L2 to follow
• Principles of Aistear (early years curriculum) to be fully

integrated into early school curriculum

• Make sure reading material addresses range of interests

(including boys) and digital literacy

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CURRICULUM + LEARNING EXPERIENCE Strategy includes

• Systematic attention to teaching and learning of key

literacy skills, for example…

– Oral and aural skills, phonological/phonemic awareness, word identification, reading fluency, vocabulary, comprehension, writing – Appropriate attention to lower order and higher order skills

• Ensure in all curricular revision that integration of

literacy and numeracy is addressed

• Increase time for literacy and numeracy

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ADDITIONAL LEARNING NEEDS Strategy includes…

• Commitments to disadvantage supports, SEN and EAL

supports within available resources

• How to address these additional needs – modules in initial

teacher education and teachers’ professional development

• Target support services to designated disadvantage schools
• Disseminate good practice from designated disadvantage

schools that are succeeding

• Ensure schools prioritise assessing, tracking progress of these

students in school self-evaluation

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ASSESSMENT + EVALUATION Strategy includes

• Learning outcomes + examples of children’s work to

guide teachers’ assessment and teaching – to support assessment for learning

• Standardised testing in reading and mathematics at 2nd ,

4th, 6th class and 2nd year (i.e. at ages 8,10,12 and 14)

• Individual student data to parents
• Better transfer of progress records between schools
• Schools will aggregate data and look at strengths and

areas for improvement

• School self-evaluation: school improvement

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ASSESSMENT + EVALUATION Strategy includes

• Aggregated data reported to board of management and

to Department annually

• National trends reported from assessments
• Inspection complementing self-evaluation
• National assessments of reading and mathematics

continue at 5-year intervals and extended to post-primary

• International participation and benchmarking

– PISA (Reading, Maths and Science, 15-year olds) – TIMSS (Maths/Science, primary), PIRLS (Reading, Primary)

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A Framework for Junior Cycle

• A Framework for Junior Cycle

was published by Minister Quinn on 4th October 2012

• Contains radical changes to

how students’ progress and learning are assessed

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Why Change?

Evidence from Research:

• A significant number of first-year students do not make progress,

particularly in English and Mathematics

• A significant number of students in second year become disengaged from

the learning process and find it almost impossible to re-connect to learning subsequently

• Choices made as early as first year of Junior Cycle (for example to take

Ordinary level rather than Higher Level) are almost impossible to reverse and may limit the options open to young people for the Leaving Certificate and after leaving school. This is a particularly important issue for students in lower stream classes and those in schools serving areas of disadvantage

• In third year, the Junior Certificate examination dominates the experiences
• f students; the focus of learning narrows, the emphasis is on rote learning

and for many students, the examination does not lead to positive learning experiences and outcomes.

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Components of the Framework

• 8 principles
• 24 statements of learning

– describe what students should know, understand, value and be

able to do

• Key skills

– literacy, numeracy and six other key skills embedded in all syllabuses and short courses

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Principles

• Quality
• Wellbeing
• Creativity and innovation
• Choice and flexibility
• Engagement and participation
• Inclusive education
• Continuity and development
• Learning to learn

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Key skills

• Literacy
• Numeracy
• Managing myself
• Staying well
• Communicating
• Being creative
• Working with others
• Managing information and thinking

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A School Programme: What will it look like?

• A school’s junior cycle programme will

include:

– Range of subjects – Range of short courses – Other learning experiences – Priority Learning Units (PLUs) – for group of students with special educational needs

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Assessment

• Ongoing classroom assessment for learning

providing feedback to students throughout the 3 years

• Standardised testing for all students at end of

second year

– English reading and Mathematics – Irish reading in Irish-medium schools – Science Current Junior Certificate examination phased out and replaced by a school-based assessment over an 8 year period

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Reporting

• Learning achieved by students recorded and

reported by the school to students and parents in the autumn after 3rd year

A junior cycle achievement profile

• School certificate

– Grades awarded to student in between 8-10 subjects or equivalent

• Achievement profile

– report on other learning experiences and achievements

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Quality assurance to support new junior cycle

• Subject specifications will contain clear outcomes and examples of

students’ work to illustrate standards for teachers, parents and students

• Comprehensive professional development for teachers
• Professional development for principals in curriculum leadership and

assessment

• New reporting system will encourage generation of evidence of learning

across subjects, short courses and other learning experiences

• Standardised tests – information re students’ learning relative to the

student cohort

• National Council for Curriculum and Assessment moderation and

assessment toolkit

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Quality assurance at the end of junior cycle

• State examinations Commission (SEC) will provide examination

papers and marking schemes for subjects

• SEC will administer and mark Irish, English and Maths for initial

period

• Internal moderation in schools in accordance with guidance on

moderation – formally confirmed by principal

• Results awarded will be returned to Department of Education and

Skills (DES) – national monitoring of patterns

• DES will provide schools with Data Profile arising from its statistical

analysis – advise the schools of patterns in the school’s data relative to national trends

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Comments on the Framework – by the Partners and

• thers?
• “Welcome focus on the individual pupil’s learning experience, and the clarity… but need to

develop confidence in new JC as early as possible… needs to be properly supported and resourced if its introduction is to succeed” JMB… and NAPD similar sentiment

• The new system will allow students to develop their creativity and thinking processes ( NPC)
• An overhaul of the current overcrowded, rigid and subject-based curriculum is long overdue

(IBEC)

• Changes “will put students at the centre of their own education …. Has capacity to revolutionise

the educational experience of future second-level students in Ireland …. Result in better learning experiences for students .. Rather than train them for exams” ISSU

• “Move away from content cramming, rote learning and the grind culture is very important”

Scouting Ireland

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Comments on the Framework by Teacher Unions

• Changes driven by budgetary rather than educational rationale…

disappointed that teachers were not specifically consulted, concerned with move from high stakes exam to an internal school assessment process may reduce public confidence; concerned that schools in advantaged areas will have a distinct advantage over schools in disadvantaged areas; Time, external moderation, CPD and payment where appropriate must be provided; concern about increased workload for teachers … in context of existing cutbacks (TUI)

• Deeply regrettable; ….. Overwhelming consensus that need reform…. But;

J Certificate is “high status”; manner of announcement – without consultation is profoundly disappointing – how can a certificate awarded by a school hold the same status as one awarded by the State (ASTI)

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What had the media to say on Friday 5th Oct.

• Bold step, a huge advance, change is long overdue,

move away from the grind culture is very positive (Irish

Indo)

• Teachers won’t get extra pay in exam overhaul (Irish Indo)
• Education faces a new test (editorial Irish Indo)
• Radical reform will end “teaching to the test” (Irish Examiner)
• Evidence points to holding low stakes exams, Quinn

says (Irish Times)

• Teachers Unions express concern at proposed reform

(Irish Times)

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What else had the media to say?

• Dead Certs: Junior exams to be scrapped in 3 years and

replaced with student assessments (Irish Daily Mirror (p2))

• Teachers not told of Junior Cert change: Quinn blasted
• ver lack of consultation (Irish Daily Star (p.12))
• The Sun - nothing
• Teachers Balk at new exams (headline front page)

– Reforming Junior Cert will force us to work longer hours with fewer resources and no promise of a pay rise (sub- headline front

page) (Irish Daily Mail)