Fix GSAT soon! - Education minister says GSAT causes two-Jam

[Karl]

I wonder how many of us who support affrimative action type programs in the US , would support some kind adjustment to GSAT, ie where some youths from the disavantaged areas with lower GSAT scores are given a choice to go to the better schools ahead of some middle class youths with higher scores?

I can hear it already. "Well no that is different because......" Heh heh.

I know where you are going - All the kids have the ability to be great students! Talent abounds! ..that is fact! If it were not so, what explanation would there be for so-called assessed poor students moving into educcation systems outside of the island and being in the top of the class/doing well?

Ever heard the sayings:
"any dummy fram yaard cum yah an mash-up dem man yah!"

"henny he-diat fram yaard cum yah end up a run tings!"

"mi wasn't di best student but im cum yah an mek good"

"mi seh im suh-prise mi!"

"mi neva kno im ave hit innah im fi gwaan suh good!"

"big bwoy a yaard, star a faar-reign!"

"lef primary school, a teach a university. im tun profesor!"

...and on and on!!!

So it certainly seems it is not the talent lacking! ...but the environment no up to scratch lacking! Right?

RE: Some from some youths from the disavantaged areas with lower GSAT scores are given a choice to go to the better schools ahead of some middle class youths with higher scores

We need that to happen to get more people to pressure the government of the day to 'right' environment in ALL schools!

Needed good schools at all levels right across the island. Say it - From the hills above Mocho, Clarendon to the plains of Vere...from Cedar Valley in the foothills of the Blue Mountains, St. Thomas side to Negril, Hanover-Westmoreland...

...right across the island, needed good schools!

[Mosiah]

What racial problem?! Lazie says there is no racial problem. Stop blaming society!

[Gamma]

middle class parents would rather send their children to orivate schools and sit the SAT.

[Mosiah]

Cut & Paste this time next year.

[Assasin]

I have no problem with it because too few minority get in a certain colleges even if your grade is good. In Jamaica however you find that a nuff ghetto kids going to the good schools if and when they get the grades.

The racial problem in the US in my view is not easily fixed but we can fix our schools by been more involved with our kids and teachers.

[Islandman]

Sure, but doesn't it sound like the minister suggesting doing something to GSAT to change where kids are placed?

BTW, what is your view on affirmative action as it is used in US college admissions?

[Islandman]

I wonder how many of us who support affrimative action type programs in the US , would support some kind adjustment to GSAT, ie where some youths from the disavantaged areas with lower GSAT scores are given a choice to go to the better schools ahead of some middle class youths with higher scores?

I can hear it already. "Well no that is different because......" Heh heh.

[Karl]

Sending middle class children to non traditional schools is not the problem either.

The problem is making the other schools better and getting "PARENTS" involve like most of the middle class parents. I use parents in quote as I wonder if some a dem a parents.

I am involved in my kids education and if they do well there is no reason why they should be dumped to a school that is not doing well. We need to start charge careless parents.

[Assasin]

Sending middle class children to non traditional schools is not the problem either.

The problem is making the other schools better and getting "PARENTS" involve like most of the middle class parents. I use parents in quote as I wonder if some a dem a parents.

I am involved in my kids education and if they do well there is no reason why they should be dumped to a school that is not doing well. We need to start charge careless parents.

[Karl]

The way I see it, the problem is not due to GSAT , the problem is that we have few really good secondary schools and whatever system you use, most students will end up getting a poor secondary education.

There is no politican brave enough to implement a system that will send middle class/upper middle class kids to the non-traditional high schools. It simply will not happen.

There is not the will to upgrade ALL the schools. - physical structure, Ministry support i.e. supervision and all that it entails to ensure always increasing improved delivery of 'the teaching' & creating always increasing improved 'learning environment', environment to attract and retain teachers, etc., etc.

There is also the matter of improving quality of pupils received in those secondary schools...i.e. quality coming out of the prep schools and primary schools...and the quality that enters those schools.

It is all about a seamless progression of quality from the bottom up (i.e. pre-school), therefore how parents stimulate their kids to learn and what the parents teach (via their actions and behaviours)...through to what holds when the child first enters school i.e. initial teaching/learning environment...through to prep & primary...through to secondary school...through to tertiary institutions.

...and guess what?...graduates of those tertiary institutions must retain their thirst for knowledge...retain 'the inquisitiveness' of the very young and retain the ability of those very young to absorb information in 'sponge-like' fashion...and it will spur the graduates ability be good role models/to be good preparers, at each stage of development of their (the) offsprings to increasing become better candidates-pupils...aaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!!!! ...standards will thus always be improving!

It is not about isolating each step along the path to improving our “education system”. It is about creating lock-step improvement from “the cradle to the grave”.
We need to face facts – lousy parents tend to produce many ill-prepared pupils…i.e. pupils who demand attention in areas such that progress along the “education path” is slowed or delayed. Lousy environment we know…let me state this in a kind manner…does not create best teaching/learning situation...etc., etc.

It must be improvement of environment from “the cradle to the grave”. Holness’ constant attack on teachers only shows both that he has not come to grips with his portfolio and his lack of good training. Gap in his education? Product of poor teaching/learning environment? …or poor ‘brought-upsy’? ...or all the foregoing?

[Islandman]

The way I see it, the problem is not due to GSAT , the problem is that we have few really good secondary schools and whatever system you use, most students will end up getting a poor secondary education.

There is no politican brave enough to implement a system that will send middle class/upper middle class kids to the non-traditional high schools. It simply will not happen.

[Lazie]

Fix GSAT soon! - Education minister says GSAT causes two-Jamaica syndrome
Published: Friday | June 12, 2009


Petrina Francis, Staff Reporter
Education Minister Andrew Holness yesterday dubbed the Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT) a meritocracy, which has not been a good placement mechanism for the island's children, and has hinted at a major change in the examination.

Reacting to his comments, chair of the Independent Committee for GSAT Reform, Taina Williams, endorsed the education minister's position.

The GSAT replaced the Common Entrance Examination in 1999 and guides the placement of students into secondary schools. On Wednesday, 40,815 students received their results.

"It is effectively a meritocracy. GSAT pairs the highest-performing grades with the choices of those students," Holness told journalists during a press briefing held at Jessie Ripoll Primary School.

"So usually what happens is that, by virtue of the signalling mechanism that operates within the education system, parents are choosing schools that they feel are high-performing schools."

The structure

He added that the way GSAT is structured, students with the highest grades are placed with their first choice and those students who get very high grades usually choose schools viewed as top-performing schools.

"It's unfair. We are so invested in GSAT because we view GSAT as the vehicle of social mobility for our children," Holness said.

"But GSAT has only served to create and reinforce the two-Jamaica syndrome and I don't want to preside over that. So the strategy is to make sure that all our children get the best possible choice," said Holness.

The minister pointed out that the scores that separated the top performers last year were less than half of a per cent.

"Why should I then place a child that gets 99.1 outside of their choice range and place a child that gets 99.2 in their choice range?" he asked.

Williams told The Gleaner yesterday that the GSAT was not an equitable examination.

"I endorse his comments. We find that the GSAT is not a fair process and children are traumatised at an early age," she said.


Williams added: "The GSAT is a high-stake examination and 11 or 12-year-olds should not undergo such pressure. There must be a way of assessing their level of achievement without forcing them to undergo such stressful preparation," Williams said.

Meanwhile, Holness said while some people view this process as a fair way of transitioning students by virtue of an achievement test, students who perform poorly are placed in schools that don't do well.

"And that compounds the problem and so we hear the complaint all the time."

Holness told the gathering that the GSAT was not a good placement mechanism, adding that other countries do not have a placement examination.

He said he was aiming to ensure that every primary school had students who were competent in literacy and numeracy and the other subject areas, such that there was no need to rank students to place them in schools.

"If we get all our students literate, the GSAT would fail as a ranking mechanism. In fact, GSAT is failing as a ranking mechanism right now because, if you look at the (students in the) top percentile from 90 to 100, there are about 900 students and the scores that separate them sometimes are less than one per cent."

Doran Dixon, president of the Jamaica Teachers' Association, said his association found the minister's comments interesting.

"What we need to do to get rid of the perception that some schools are better than others is to ensure that we have quality spaces," Dixon said.

"It is clear that the offering in some schools leaves a lot to be desired," he added.

petrina.francis@gleanerjm.com

http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/glean...ead/lead1.html