Posted on 09/20/2003 6:34:11 PM PDT by Bubba_Leroy
School exam chiefs are to remove all risk of failure from key national tests by replacing the current F for "fail" grade with an N for "nearly".
The changes, which have been condemned as "politically correct twaddle", include instructions that markers are to grade maths exam answers as either "creditworthy" or "not creditworthy" instead of correct or incorrect.
Guidelines explaining the changes were sent by the Government's Qualifications and Curriculum Authority to the markers of this summer's national curriculum exams.
The instructions cover English, maths and science exams at key stages one, two and three, which are taken by seven, 11 and 14-year-olds in all state schools and some private schools. The booklet for the stage two tests says: "The following method is used to note the marks awarded: 1 means that a creditworthy response has scored one mark; 0 means that a response is not creditworthy."
It adds: "Children who narrowly fail to achieve the lowest level targeted by the levels three-five tests are awarded a compensatory level two. Children who score fewer marks than required for a compensatory award will be awarded N."
A QCA spokesman denied that the marking scheme blurred the distinction between passing and failing.
A "compensatory level two" and "N" were used because "the focus is on reaching level three, the lowest level targeted by the tests, so if pupils don't reach that target it does not mean that they have failed; it means they have nearly reached the target".
The spokesman said the use of "creditworthy" was justified because some answers to maths questions were worth several marks and it was possible to gain some marks even if the final answer was wrong.
He admitted, however, that many questions had only a single answer and that in those cases "when we say it's not creditworthy then I suppose we do mean it's wrong".
Nick Seaton, the chairman of the Campaign for Real Education, described the changes as "political correctness gone stark raving bonkers". He said the educational establishment had become afraid to use the words right, wrong and fail.
He dismissed the QCA's explanations as "twaddle". The use of words such as creditworthy, non-creditworthy and nearly by markers did "a disservice to our children because they represent a refusal to accept reality".
He added: "This sort of meaningless language begins with the Government, and seeps down to teachers and on to the children who are no longer taught the difference between right and wrong but that everything is simply a matter of personal choice.
"It's as if they are treating children as an oppressed minority whose feelings they are afraid to hurt." Other critics said the use of "vague marking criteria" gave examiners leeway to manipulate results.
The Government has been accused of "dumbing down" GCSE exams to increase the pass rate - a charge denied by the Department for Education.
The only hope for the USA is to eliminate government schools.
You mean the government training camps, don't you?
Diversity, What the World Thinks of Us, Imagination.
So our children need to hear about what Castro thinks of us?
This is brainwashing.
We are doomed.
I just heard of the same thing; maybe we were listening to the same radio program.
My answer to these classes: Diversity is killing us; why should we care what a bunch of Third World whiners thinks of us?; and imagine a world where people are capable of independent thought, not just regurgitating liberal propaganda!
'Twas the Barbara Simpson program today, and those thoughts were fresh. But managing this transition though the socialist unions and politicos is not feasible, IMO. What is necessary is nothing less than a revolution by the taxpayers/parents.
Let's hope these are not future military candidates in Trident Sub or grenade launching warfare.
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