Category Archives: Education
Phonics literacy test for young children ‘a waste of time and money’
Test would have minimal, if any, long-term impact on pupils’ standards of reading and writing, research shows
The phonics literacy test applied to first-year schoolchildren in England has had a minimal impact on reading and writing standards, according to teachers in a Department for Education-funded survey, leading education unions to describe it as a waste of time and money.
The survey, conducted in the first year that the phonics screening check has been given to all five- and six-year-olds in state-funded primary schools, reveals continued disquiet among teachers and literacy co-ordinators over the usefulness of the test, alongside apparent indifference from parents.
“Most of the teachers interviewed as part of the case-study visits to schools reported that the check would have minimal, if any, impact on the standard of reading and writing in their school in the future,” the interim report, conducted by the National Foundation for Education Research, concludes.
A majority – 52% – of school literacy co-ordinators surveyed disagreed with the statement “the phonics screening check provides valuable information for teachers”, while only a quarter agreed. Most teachers preferred to use their records or other means of assessment to gauge a child’s progress, with only half saying they used the test results to judge whether a pupil needed extra support.
One teacher interviewed in the survey’s follow-up case study was quoted as saying: “The check had no impact on me personally. I know exactly where the children are anyway. There were no surprises in the data and [it revealed] nothing we didn’t already know.”
While many teachers are strong supporters of phonics, a teaching method that involves pupils examining each letter within a word as an individual sound and blending the sounds together in pronunciation, many remain unconvinced of the need for a test or check on children as young as five, or in using the DfE’s preferred technique, known as synthetic phonics, exclusively.
Christine Blower, the general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, said the survey suggested the check was a waste of money.
“This report will make for very uncomfortable reading by Michael Gove as it has very little to say that is positive about the phonics check,” she said. “The NUT agrees with many of the findings, in particular the key conclusions that schools believe the check provides no new information on pupils’ ability and that phonics should be used alongside other methods in the teaching of reading.”
Russell Hobby, the general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, called the tests a waste of time. “We have seen nonsense words plastered on the walls of good primary schools to get children used to the concept of words that don’t make sense. What on Earth are we being forced to teach children?” he said.
The average cost of administering the check was £740 per school, with one school reporting a cost of more than £20,400, although the survey’s authors said that figure probably included spending on phonics teaching resources. Others spent £5,000 on teaching supply cover. Schools reported an average of eight hours spent administering the test.
A spokesman for the DfE pointed out that 80% of literacy co-ordinators said the results of the check would enable them to identify children who needed extra help.
“The phonics check ensures children struggling with reading get the help they desperately need. Last year’s check – when teachers identified more than 235,000 six-year-olds behind on reading – demonstrated its value,” the DfE said.
Teachers were divided over the usefulness of the test for pupils with more advanced levels of reading comprehension, with as many saying the check was inappropriate as those who thought it was appropriate.
The survey also revealed concerns that the use of “pseudo words” in the check may be confusing for advanced readers or children speaking English as an additional language. Made-up words, such as “halp” or “flarp”, are included in the check to test a child’s ability to blend sounds, rather than rely on reading a word they may already recognise.
Several teachers reported problems over the pseudo words, which comprise 20 of the 40 words tested. “They [the children] tried to make the pseudo words fit something they knew, for example by changing ‘proom’ to ‘groom’,” according to one teacher.
Others said children speaking English as an additional language also had difficulty adapting to the pseudo words. According to one teacher some children claimed the made-up words “were real words, like ‘desh’ – so we don’t know whether in their own language that is a real word, or the pronunciation is a real word, and this confused those children”.
Children with speech, language or communication difficulties or other learning issues were also reported to have experienced problems with the check, and to have been confused by the pseudo words, while the survey found some evidence of unsuitability of the check for students with severe autism.
The survey of nearly 1,800 teachers and literacy co-ordinators will be repeated this year, along with interviews with parents.
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One British household in 10 has £1m assets
UK now has around 2.5m millionaire households, boosted by pensions and house prices, according to new book
One British household in every 10 now has total assets exceeding £1m, according to a new book based on work at the London School of Economics published on Wednesday.
Wealth in the UK crunched the findings from a comprehensive official survey that took place between 2008 and 2010, and found that 10% of households had total wealth of £967,200 or more.
The lead author, Prof John Hills – who previously headed Whitehall’s National Equality Panel – says a subsequent surge in stock markets, London house prices and the valuation of occupational pensions will “have pushed the entry point into that wealthiest tenth over the million-pound mark today”.
In the midst of a slump without end, news that Britain now has around 2.5m “millionaire households” may seem surprising. But over the decades since Frank Sinatra asked Celeste Holm: “Who wants the bother of a country estate?”, general inflation has obviously done a great deal of work in devaluing the millionaire currency.
But surging house prices and – more recently – rocketing valuations of pensions have boosted Britain’s wealth far beyond its overall earning power. Back in the 1960s, Britons’ non-pension wealth was only about twice national income; by the mid-noughties Britons were instead worth four times what they earned.
Hills explains: “It is not that there are millions of people with millions of pounds in the bank, but rather that London property prices and – for those lucky professionals who retain them – final salary pensions have quietly made technical millionaires out of many who would only consider themselves as solidly middle-class.”
The previous official Wealth and Assets Survey, which covered 2006 through to 2008, implied that the top 10% had total wealth of £853,000 or more. With house prices having fluctuated without much trend since then, at least outside London, Hills believes that the most important force that has subsequently pushed up the wealth of the well-to-do has been lax monetary policy.
“With rock-bottom interest rates and quantitative easing … any given fixed pension that has been promised for the future is now worth more, in terms of the money you would have to set aside to fund it today.”
The valuations can be considerable: in the light of the 2006-08 data, actuaries at Hazell Carr calculated for the Guardian that the pension of a career police inspector on the point of retirement could be worth £1.3m.
Just as striking as the rocketing level of wealth at the top end, however, is the continuing gulf between the haves and have-nots. Inequality in British pay is familiar, but it is dwarfed by inequality in wealth: whereas the top tenth of households brings home roughly 10 times as much as the poorest tenth in annual income, the top 10% own 850 times as much as the bottom tenth. And if around one in 10 are in millionaire territory, then another one in 10 households – at the opposite end of the scale – have a total net worth of less than £12,600, the poorest among them actually saddled with a negative valuation on account of debt.
As in interpreting the figures for the wealthiest, it is important to remember that the definition of assets here is designed to be all-encompassing. As well as money in the bank it includes housing, pensions, vehicles, personal possessions such as furniture and jewellery – even the average of £1,300 that nearly 6% of households claim to have locked up in personalised number plates (making for a supposed total of £1.46bn).
With such a sweeping definition of wealth, Hills regards the implications of so many families having so little as frightening. If those with low or negative wealth were all youngsters, who had not yet had a chance to save or buy durable goods, then that would be one thing – much of the problem would then be expected to solve itself over time.
But what is really troubling, he says, is that “it’s not just young people who have little or no assets. There are large parts of the population who have few if any assets, right across the age range.”
Among households headed by an adult aged 55-64, for example, one in 10 have accumulated worldly and financial assets worth less than £29,000. A couple seeking to buy a joint index-linked annuity with that sort of pension fund would struggle to secure an income of £1,000 a year. In practice, seeing as much of that money will often be tied up in fixtures, furnishings and other personal effects, it is likely to leave next to nothing to contribute towards retirement. Hills warns: “A great chunk of the population is approaching retirement with no property, no assets to speak of, and no security beyond the state pension and safety net.”
He also warns against the complacent temptation to regard the great surge in wealth at the top end as a “purely paper” phenomenon, arguing instead that it will have implications for social mobility for a long time to come.
“Inflation in house prices underlies the burgeoning wealth at the top end of the scale, and seeing as most of us are still living in the same old houses it is easy to regard this as an illusion. But that would be a mistake: whether through downsizing, inheritance or equity release, this notional wealth gets cashed in at some stage. And whether it is spent on a comfortable retirement or on master’s degrees or deposits to help buy property in the right place, it will certainly have major implications for the life chances of some – but not others – in the next generation, and the one after that. The scale of the increase in wealth over the last 20 years makes the wins and losses from this lottery far bigger than it was in the past.”
Wealth in the UK: Distribution, Accumulation and Policy, is published by Oxford University Press, and launched at the London School of Economics on Wednesday
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IHT Rendezvous: Does U.S. Violence Scare Students Away?
Concern among international students and their parents about safety on American campuses long predates the Boston Marathon bombings.
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Education in brief: Is the DfE trying to rig the teacher-education market?
The education department seems desperate to teach more teachers; Newham local authority refuses to release a report’s findings; parents give up on battle against academy chain
Trainee teachers: a spot of poaching?
Relations between the government and university-based teacher educators have reached a new low amid claims that a Department for Education agency has been attempting to lure would-be students away from the traditional higher education sector towards a favoured ministerial project.
An email sent by the National College for Teaching and Leadership – which oversees both traditional, university-based provision and the new School Direct school-based route – sought to persuade prospective postgraduate certificate in education university trainees to consider its rival. It reads: “You may have already applied for a PGCE by now, but have you thought about applying for School Direct?”
It continues, under “Why you should apply for School Direct”: “School Direct is different. That’s because you’re part of a school team from day one, where you can train as a teacher with the expectation of a job once you qualify.
“It’s free to apply. Simple too.”
The Universities’ Council for the Education of Teachers (Ucet) has furiously accused the government of trying to “manipulate” the teacher-education market, arguing that its members have tried to play fair by not discouraging would-be students away from School Direct, which is the favoured route of the education secretary, Michael Gove.
Just as intriguing, though, is why officials felt the need to make the appeal. Although the DfE published figures this month suggesting applications for School Direct have been very healthy, questions have been raised about the detail behind the numbers, amid persistent rumours that the total actually accepted on to School Direct is still low. Is the DfE getting desperate?
Governors throw in towel
The highest-profile battle fought by parents this year against moves by the government to enforce an academy “sponsor” on a non-academy school seems to have been lost. Governors at Roke primary in Kenley, Surrey, voted by a 2-1 majority to stop contesting its transfer to the Harris academy chain, bringing to an end four months of furious campaigning by parents.
This was triggered after the government responded to a “requires improvement” Ofsted verdict on the previously “outstanding” Roke by insisting that the school was to be sponsored by Harris, rather than another local academy seemingly favoured by governors and parents.
The majority of governors are understood to have come to the view that the arrival of Harris in September had become the only way to stabilise the school, which lost its headteacher last month. But parent campaigners are bitterly disappointed, complaining they were not consulted, and that they had raised money for a legal challenge. This would now not work, said a source, without governor support.
Ironically, governors have just been sent the results of the consultation carried out by Harris on the plans. Parents are said to have voted by clear majorities both against Harris’s sponsorship and against any move to academy status. So much for local democracy.
School secrets
A London local authority is facing pressure to release an investigation report on management practice at a school once described as “outstanding” by Ofsted. Newham council has rejected a freedom of information request for the report, which was written about activities at Langdon school in the period from 2004 to 2009, after a probe by education consultant Tim Blanchard. Allegations investigated included claims that free school meals and pupil attendance data were falsified.
Newham has relied on a provision within freedom of information legislation that can allow the non-release of reports on the basis that individuals could be identified. Rick Helm, a former teacher at the school who made the request, is challenging the decision through the information commissioner. Newham said: “Newham council’s decision [not to release the report] is currently being reviewed by the information commissioner. It would be inappropriate to comment further.”
Langdon was in the spotlight in 2005 when pupils travelled to Singapore to support London’s successful Olympics bid. A letter sent to Langdon staff last year, by a second investigator into the affair, Susan Paul, said that Blanchard’s report had found evidence of a “systematic process involving professional malpractice designed to show the school in the best light educationally and also to benefit financially”.
It also said Blanchard had concluded that attendance, exclusions and free school meals data had been falsified and that “inappropriate processes” had been followed with regard to keeping pupils officially “on-roll” and “off-roll”. Paul wrote to staff saying she wanted to “assess and if necessary challenge” Blanchard’s findings. Education Guardian understands Paul’s investigation never concluded.
Asked to comment, Newham said: “Following an independent investigation into serious allegations regarding management and administrative matters at the school between 2004 and 2009, six members of staff were suspended. Disciplinary procedures were undertaken … resulting in a number of these members of staff leaving. There has been no further evidence of management irregularities.” It added that improvements had since been made to teaching and management.
Helm said: “I am disappointed that Newham has not released the report, as there needs to be a resolution of these issues.” Last month, the school lost its “outstanding” rating and was placed in special measures.
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Education in brief: Is the DfE trying to rig the teacher-education market?
The education department seems desperate to teach more teachers; Newham local authority refuses to release a report’s findings; parents give up on battle against academy chain
Trainee teachers: a spot of poaching?
Relations between the government and university-based teacher educators have reached a new low amid claims that a Department for Education agency has been attempting to lure would-be students away from the traditional higher education sector towards a favoured ministerial project.
An email sent by the National College for Teaching and Leadership – which oversees both traditional, university-based provision and the new School Direct school-based route – sought to persuade prospective postgraduate certificate in education university trainees to consider its rival. It reads: “You may have already applied for a PGCE by now, but have you thought about applying for School Direct?”
It continues, under “Why you should apply for School Direct”: “School Direct is different. That’s because you’re part of a school team from day one, where you can train as a teacher with the expectation of a job once you qualify.
“It’s free to apply. Simple too.”
The Universities’ Council for the Education of Teachers (Ucet) has furiously accused the government of trying to “manipulate” the teacher-education market, arguing that its members have tried to play fair by not discouraging would-be students away from School Direct, which is the favoured route of the education secretary, Michael Gove.
Just as intriguing, though, is why officials felt the need to make the appeal. Although the DfE published figures this month suggesting applications for School Direct have been very healthy, questions have been raised about the detail behind the numbers, amid persistent rumours that the total actually accepted on to School Direct is still low. Is the DfE getting desperate?
Governors throw in towel
The highest-profile battle fought by parents this year against moves by the government to enforce an academy “sponsor” on a non-academy school seems to have been lost. Governors at Roke primary in Kenley, Surrey, voted by a 2-1 majority to stop contesting its transfer to the Harris academy chain, bringing to an end four months of furious campaigning by parents.
This was triggered after the government responded to a “requires improvement” Ofsted verdict on the previously “outstanding” Roke by insisting that the school was to be sponsored by Harris, rather than another local academy seemingly favoured by governors and parents.
The majority of governors are understood to have come to the view that the arrival of Harris in September had become the only way to stabilise the school, which lost its headteacher last month. But parent campaigners are bitterly disappointed, complaining they were not consulted, and that they had raised money for a legal challenge. This would now not work, said a source, without governor support.
Ironically, governors have just been sent the results of the consultation carried out by Harris on the plans. Parents are said to have voted by clear majorities both against Harris’s sponsorship and against any move to academy status. So much for local democracy.
School secrets
A London local authority is facing pressure to release an investigation report on management practice at a school once described as “outstanding” by Ofsted. Newham council has rejected a freedom of information request for the report, which was written about activities at Langdon school in the period from 2004 to 2009, after a probe by education consultant Tim Blanchard. Allegations investigated included claims that free school meals and pupil attendance data were falsified.
Newham has relied on a provision within freedom of information legislation that can allow the non-release of reports on the basis that individuals could be identified. Rick Helm, a former teacher at the school who made the request, is challenging the decision through the information commissioner. Newham said: “Newham council’s decision [not to release the report] is currently being reviewed by the information commissioner. It would be inappropriate to comment further.”
Langdon was in the spotlight in 2005 when pupils travelled to Singapore to support London’s successful Olympics bid. A letter sent to Langdon staff last year, by a second investigator into the affair, Susan Paul, said that Blanchard’s report had found evidence of a “systematic process involving professional malpractice designed to show the school in the best light educationally and also to benefit financially”.
It also said Blanchard had concluded that attendance, exclusions and free school meals data had been falsified and that “inappropriate processes” had been followed with regard to keeping pupils officially “on-roll” and “off-roll”. Paul wrote to staff saying she wanted to “assess and if necessary challenge” Blanchard’s findings. Education Guardian understands Paul’s investigation never concluded.
Asked to comment, Newham said: “Following an independent investigation into serious allegations regarding management and administrative matters at the school between 2004 and 2009, six members of staff were suspended. Disciplinary procedures were undertaken … resulting in a number of these members of staff leaving. There has been no further evidence of management irregularities.” It added that improvements had since been made to teaching and management.
Helm said: “I am disappointed that Newham has not released the report, as there needs to be a resolution of these issues.” Last month, the school lost its “outstanding” rating and was placed in special measures.
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Michael Gove suggests Wales and Northern Ireland split off school exams
Education minister says nations’ GCSEs and A-levels will diverge from English system as ‘consequence of devolution’
The education system is set to splinter into national components, with Michael Gove writing to his Welsh and Northern Irish counterparts to kickstart the separation of GCSEs and A-levels as “a natural and legitimate consequence of devolution”.
The education secretary’s decision raises the spectre of England, Wales and Northern Ireland all having different secondary school examinations and qualifications, with employers and universities having to distinguish between English, Welsh and Northern Irish GCSEs and A-levels, leading, in time, to the evolution of entirely different education structures, as is already the case in Scotland.
In his joint letter to Leighton Andrews, education minister in the Welsh government, and John O’Dowd, education minister in the Northern Ireland assembly, Gove said “the time is right for us to acknowledge” that the three nations would need to go their separate ways on educational qualifications.
The letter follows a meeting between the three men last week to discuss the subject.
“I recognise that you still have decisions to take on your own reforms to GCSEs and A-levels. It is clear from our discussions, however, that our reforms are leading to very different qualifications in Wales and Northern Ireland from those I believe are right for young people in England,” Gove wrote.
He said he had received advice from Ofqual, the education standards regulator in England, that “it will be very difficult, if not impossible, to maintain comparable standards when the structure, content and even grading of these qualifications are diverging to such an extent”.
“I therefore believe that the time is right for us to acknowledge that the three-country regulation of GCSEs and A-levels is no longer an objective towards which we should be working,” Gove wrote.
Currently, GCSEs and A-levels are set to the same standard for all three regions. But last summer’s GCSE marking fiasco saw a fissure develop between the responses in London and Cardiff, with the Welsh government taking what their English counterparts regarded as a softer stance.
A Whitehall source said: “The Welsh are determined to keep dumbing down their exams. Leighton Andrews interfered with exam boards last year. He opposes our attempts to toughen things up and made clear he will continue to interfere to make things easier. It’s better that we all go our own way and defend our positions to our electorates.
“It’s been agreed that we will explore what the Northern Irish described as ‘a surgical separation’.”
The situation is complicated because Wales has no equivalent of Ofqual, with the education minister also acting as standards regulator.
In his letter, Gove warns that Wales and Northern Ireland may have to give up the GCSE and GCE titles. “With this issue resolved, I see no reason why cross-border differences in qualifications should not work between England, Wales and Northern Ireland as they do between our three jurisdictions and Scotland.”
A Welsh government spokesman said: “Wales is keeping GCSEs and A-levels, as is Northern Ireland. We wish Mr Gove well with his plans to rename these qualifications in England.”
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Michael Gove suggests Wales and Northern Ireland split off school exams
Education minister says nations’ GCSEs and A-levels will diverge from English system as ‘consequence of devolution’
The education system is set to splinter into national components, with Michael Gove writing to his Welsh and Northern Irish counterparts to kickstart the separation of GCSEs and A-levels as “a natural and legitimate consequence of devolution”.
The education secretary’s decision raises the spectre of England, Wales and Northern Ireland all having different secondary school examinations and qualifications, with employers and universities having to distinguish between English, Welsh and Northern Irish GCSEs and A-levels, leading, in time, to the evolution of entirely different education structures, as is already the case in Scotland.
In his joint letter to Leighton Andrews, education minister in the Welsh government, and John O’Dowd, education minister in the Northern Ireland assembly, Gove said “the time is right for us to acknowledge” that the three nations would need to go their separate ways on educational qualifications.
The letter follows a meeting between the three men last week to discuss the subject.
“I recognise that you still have decisions to take on your own reforms to GCSEs and A-levels. It is clear from our discussions, however, that our reforms are leading to very different qualifications in Wales and Northern Ireland from those I believe are right for young people in England,” Gove wrote.
He said he had received advice from Ofqual, the education standards regulator in England, that “it will be very difficult, if not impossible, to maintain comparable standards when the structure, content and even grading of these qualifications are diverging to such an extent”.
“I therefore believe that the time is right for us to acknowledge that the three-country regulation of GCSEs and A-levels is no longer an objective towards which we should be working,” Gove wrote.
Currently, GCSEs and A-levels are set to the same standard for all three regions. But last summer’s GCSE marking fiasco saw a fissure develop between the responses in London and Cardiff, with the Welsh government taking what their English counterparts regarded as a softer stance.
A Whitehall source said: “The Welsh are determined to keep dumbing down their exams. Leighton Andrews interfered with exam boards last year. He opposes our attempts to toughen things up and made clear he will continue to interfere to make things easier. It’s better that we all go our own way and defend our positions to our electorates.
“It’s been agreed that we will explore what the Northern Irish described as ‘a surgical separation’.”
The situation is complicated because Wales has no equivalent of Ofqual, with the education minister also acting as standards regulator.
In his letter, Gove warns that Wales and Northern Ireland may have to give up the GCSE and GCE titles. “With this issue resolved, I see no reason why cross-border differences in qualifications should not work between England, Wales and Northern Ireland as they do between our three jurisdictions and Scotland.”
A Welsh government spokesman said: “Wales is keeping GCSEs and A-levels, as is Northern Ireland. We wish Mr Gove well with his plans to rename these qualifications in England.”
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Propaganda war: who will win Scottish teenage hearts and minds?
Schools are gearing up to be a key battleground in next year’s referendum on Scottish independence
Rosie Duthie and Euan MacIntosh, both 15, have made up their minds on how they plan to vote in next year’s referendum on Scottish independence. For Euan the answer is a clear “yes” because he believes it will be his best guarantee of a free university education. Rosie is a “no”. She says: “We should be arguing that what we think is better for the future of young people in Scotland is better for England too and for the European Union.”
Next year these young people from Douglas academy in the salubrious Glaswegian suburb of Milngavie will be among the first 16-year-olds in the UK mainland ever to vote. It appears that, like Rosie and Euan, many are taking their role in the process very seriously. It is a change that will bring politics into classrooms and canteens. People on both sides of the border will be watching closely the success or failure of extending the franchise to schoolchildren.
Some, like the Scotland Office minister David Mundell, claim the turnout among teenagers will be small because only middle-class children will bother to get themselves on the young people’s voting register, which will remain confidential to avoid making children’s addresses public.
But the move has widespread support in the Scottish parliament, with the first draft of the bill to give 16-year-olds a vote in the referendum passing last week on a vote of 97 to 12. The Liberal Democrats are committed to widening the franchise to all elections, and Labour is considering whether to include it in its manifesto for the 2015 election.
The leader of the Scottish Greens, Patrick Harvie, has said it may be “dispiriting and depressing” for young people who vote in the referendum to find they are then denied a vote in the general election a few months later.
The vote is something the 20-year-old vice-chair of the Scottish youth parliament, Kyle Thornton, and many others across the UK have lobbied hard for. “We have been campaigning for a decade and we will be working really hard to get people to register; we will be going in to schools and motivating the young people to make sure they are on the register … This is an opportunity to create a politically aware generation.
Thornton has now left Bellahouston academy in Glasgow, but he says: “In my last two years at school there was a general election, a European election, a council election and a Scottish election. There was an irony that we couldn’t vote – I think we were as well qualified as any adult.”
For teachers, the next academic year will be challenging as they try to ensure a fair hearing for both sides and to contain the massive lobbying effort that is likely to reach schools. Both sides of the debate are recruiting hundreds of teen ambassadors to take their arguments into schools, preparing teachers’ packs, and offering speakers and visits. There is likely to be some mediation by the Electoral Commission in this new electoral battleground.
Emma Hendry, principal of modern studies at Elgin academy, is already debating the issues with year 9s and upwards. She says: “They are excited or at least interested in the idea that they will have a vote and that it will be about a decision that is so important to their future … I think they will be at least as well-informed as most adults because they are still in the education system and will have opportunities to hear the arguments.”
Hendry herself is undecided. “The young people ask me how I will vote. I can honestly tell them I haven’t made up my mind yet.”
At Douglas academy, pupils are in training for STV (central Scotland’s ITV franchise) and the national debating competition Debating Matters on independence. The school won a regional final of the Debating Matters championship this year and deputy head Stephen Sinclair is planning a series of debates on the issues around independence.
During the heats, teams will debate questions such as whether an independent Scotland should keep the pound. The last, televised, round will be on the referendum question: “Should Scotland be an independent country?”
Teenagers who have already volunteered to represent either side are accessing training and creating political relationships and CVs that could stand them in good stead for their future careers. Michael Low, 17, a sixth-year pupil at Bishopbriggs academy in Glasgow who has a conditional offer to study politics at Oxford next year, has already attended a session with someone from the Obama campaign.
“There is a lot of discussion in school, informally,” he says. “People know I am a Better Together [the pro-UK campaign] youth rep and they can ask me about particular issues, or they can ask me for badges and other campaign material.”
Meanwhile, the yes campaign aims to recruit 10,000 youth ambassadors. Ellie Koepplinger, 16, from Glasgow’s Hillhead high, is on the yes campaign board. She says: “I feel my teachers are quite opinionated, and are willing to discuss independence when prompted, but most won’t go out of their way to have that discussion with pupils. However, I strongly feel that many pupils are interested in the debate, and want to know more.”
She wants to help counter some of the information teenagers share on social media, which can at times be “wildly unrealistic”.
Like Low, Koepplinger believes in votes at 16 for all elections. She says young people like “the thought that we could actually make a difference to something. It will allow us to hold our heads up higher to say that we have proved we are able to take part in something like this.”
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Propaganda war: who will win Scottish teenage hearts and minds?
Schools are gearing up to be a key battleground in next year’s referendum on Scottish independence
Rosie Duthie and Euan MacIntosh, both 15, have made up their minds on how they plan to vote in next year’s referendum on Scottish independence. For Euan the answer is a clear “yes” because he believes it will be his best guarantee of a free university education. Rosie is a “no”. She says: “We should be arguing that what we think is better for the future of young people in Scotland is better for England too and for the European Union.”
Next year these young people from Douglas academy in the salubrious Glaswegian suburb of Milngavie will be among the first 16-year-olds in the UK mainland ever to vote. It appears that, like Rosie and Euan, many are taking their role in the process very seriously. It is a change that will bring politics into classrooms and canteens. People on both sides of the border will be watching closely the success or failure of extending the franchise to schoolchildren.
Some, like the Scotland Office minister David Mundell, claim the turnout among teenagers will be small because only middle-class children will bother to get themselves on the young people’s voting register, which will remain confidential to avoid making children’s addresses public.
But the move has widespread support in the Scottish parliament, with the first draft of the bill to give 16-year-olds a vote in the referendum passing last week on a vote of 97 to 12. The Liberal Democrats are committed to widening the franchise to all elections, and Labour is considering whether to include it in its manifesto for the 2015 election.
The leader of the Scottish Greens, Patrick Harvie, has said it may be “dispiriting and depressing” for young people who vote in the referendum to find they are then denied a vote in the general election a few months later.
The vote is something the 20-year-old vice-chair of the Scottish youth parliament, Kyle Thornton, and many others across the UK have lobbied hard for. “We have been campaigning for a decade and we will be working really hard to get people to register; we will be going in to schools and motivating the young people to make sure they are on the register … This is an opportunity to create a politically aware generation.
Thornton has now left Bellahouston academy in Glasgow, but he says: “In my last two years at school there was a general election, a European election, a council election and a Scottish election. There was an irony that we couldn’t vote – I think we were as well qualified as any adult.”
For teachers, the next academic year will be challenging as they try to ensure a fair hearing for both sides and to contain the massive lobbying effort that is likely to reach schools. Both sides of the debate are recruiting hundreds of teen ambassadors to take their arguments into schools, preparing teachers’ packs, and offering speakers and visits. There is likely to be some mediation by the Electoral Commission in this new electoral battleground.
Emma Hendry, principal of modern studies at Elgin academy, is already debating the issues with year 9s and upwards. She says: “They are excited or at least interested in the idea that they will have a vote and that it will be about a decision that is so important to their future … I think they will be at least as well-informed as most adults because they are still in the education system and will have opportunities to hear the arguments.”
Hendry herself is undecided. “The young people ask me how I will vote. I can honestly tell them I haven’t made up my mind yet.”
At Douglas academy, pupils are in training for STV (central Scotland’s ITV franchise) and the national debating competition Debating Matters on independence. The school won a regional final of the Debating Matters championship this year and deputy head Stephen Sinclair is planning a series of debates on the issues around independence.
During the heats, teams will debate questions such as whether an independent Scotland should keep the pound. The last, televised, round will be on the referendum question: “Should Scotland be an independent country?”
Teenagers who have already volunteered to represent either side are accessing training and creating political relationships and CVs that could stand them in good stead for their future careers. Michael Low, 17, a sixth-year pupil at Bishopbriggs academy in Glasgow who has a conditional offer to study politics at Oxford next year, has already attended a session with someone from the Obama campaign.
“There is a lot of discussion in school, informally,” he says. “People know I am a Better Together [the pro-UK campaign] youth rep and they can ask me about particular issues, or they can ask me for badges and other campaign material.”
Meanwhile, the yes campaign aims to recruit 10,000 youth ambassadors. Ellie Koepplinger, 16, from Glasgow’s Hillhead high, is on the yes campaign board. She says: “I feel my teachers are quite opinionated, and are willing to discuss independence when prompted, but most won’t go out of their way to have that discussion with pupils. However, I strongly feel that many pupils are interested in the debate, and want to know more.”
She wants to help counter some of the information teenagers share on social media, which can at times be “wildly unrealistic”.
Like Low, Koepplinger believes in votes at 16 for all elections. She says young people like “the thought that we could actually make a difference to something. It will allow us to hold our heads up higher to say that we have proved we are able to take part in something like this.”
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Creationism and revisionist history threaten to invade our classrooms | Zack Kopplin
We have to stop state legislators from sneaking creationist and revisionist textbooks into public schools
Louisiana’s legislators are continuing their legislative jihad to keep the theory of evolution out of the state’s public school science classrooms. On 1 May, legislators killed a bill to repeal Louisiana’s creationism law, the misnamed Louisiana Science Education Act (LSEA).
The law allows non-science to be snuck into science classrooms by teachers who use supplemental materials to “critique” politically controversial (but not scientifically controversial) theories, including evolution and climate science. Despite this loophole for creationism created by the LSEA, educators are still required to teach “material presented in the standard textbook”, which includes the theory of evolution.
These biology textbooks are a major problem for creationists, whose next goal is to throw them out, and they have allies in the Louisiana legislature who are willing to help.
House Bill 116, sponsored by Frank Hoffmann, a state representative, would throw out Louisiana’s biology books – it passed the Louisiana State House by a 73-22 vote. This is the third bill Hoffmann has sponsored to remove biology textbooks since they were adopted by the state board of education, in 2010.
When our board of education adopted life science textbooks, creationists fought hard to block their approval. At that time, Wired pointed out that these textbooks are “well-respected, and used widely in US high schools.”
The Baton Rouge Advocate reported that in 2010, the state board of education received a large number of complaints that intelligent design wasn’t included in textbooks. One vocal opponent, Winston White, complained:
Winston White’s father, Judge Darrell White, is one of the founders of the Louisiana Family Forum, a powerful creationist lobbying group. Judge White echoed his son’s sentiments at a board of education hearing. He called evolution “mindless nihilism” and claimed that teaching it in public schools would cause another Columbine shooting. The New Orleans Lens described the scene:
Yes. You read that right. I was at that hearing and sat in shock as Judge White implied that teaching evolution caused Dylan Klebold to shoot up his school. Creationists in Louisiana suggest that state-approved biology textbooks will lead to mass murder.
When the state board ultimately approved the textbooks – a huge victory for science education – Fox News pointed out that Louisiana “rejected calls by conservatives to include references to the debate over evolution and the religious-based concepts of intelligent design or creationism in state-approved biology textbooks.”
It’s clear that the opposition to these biology textbooks comes from creationists who are trying to sneak religion into public school classrooms.
Representative Hoffmann, the legislator sponsoring the bill to throw out science textbooks, was one of the sponsors of the state creationism law. He also meddled in the initial adoption process of the science textbooks.
At that time, creationist complaints swamped the state board, which had initially punted the textbooks’ approval to a little-known committee that included Representative Hoffmann and his partner-in-creationism, Senator Ben Nevers – another sponsor of the LSEA. (Nevers recently made news by stating that he wanted the United States Supreme Court to reverse its decision to overturn Louisiana’s 1981 law that mandated the teaching of creationism.) The pair managed to get themselves appointed leaders of this committee.
The Baton Rouge Advocate noted that Hoffmann argued “the books under review were not consistent with the spirit of the (Louisiana Science Education Act).” Of course, the spirit of the act is to teach creationism to students. What Representative Hoffmann meant is that these textbooks taught evolution and didn’t have a trace of intelligent design or creationism, and thus he considers them a problem.
Hoffmann and Nevers voted against these biology textbooks, and they lost. The board of education adopted the textbooks and required evolution be taught in public school science classes, despite their complaints.
That’s where Hoffmann’s new bill comes in. After losing the fight in 2010, he realized had an uphill battle, because the state board listens to scientists. His bill would take control of textbooks away from the state and give it to friendlier audience – local school boards, who would be able to choose whatever books they want.
Representative Hoffmann claims the current bill isn’t his latest salvo in a war against evolution, but given his record and his constituents’ complaints, he’s reminding me of Shakespeare. The legislator doth protest too much.
It’s also worth noting that this bill could harm history education too, by allowing revisionist history textbooks to be used, which has become a problem in our neighboring state of Texas.
I asked the Texas Freedom Network, an organization which defends civil and religious liberties, about revisionist history standards there. Dan Quinn, their communications director reminded me that the people who are attacking evolution nationally are “the same people who took a wrecking ball to the social studies standards.” Quinn said:
The Texas Observer said that Texan conservative factions even “recommended removing references to African-American and Latino figures like Cesar Chavez and Thurgood Marshall from some social-studies standards” because “the curriculum contained an ‘overrepresentation of minorities’.”
Luckily, that specific push documented failed, but because this bill takes away state oversight from textbook selection, this type of revisionist history could be brought into Louisiana’s classrooms with ease.
Representative Hoffmann’s bill is bad legislation and a message must be sent to the Louisiana legislature. We have to ask them to reject this bill, and not to allow revisionist history or even more creationism into public schools.
• Editor’s note: a previous version of this article misspelled Representative Frank Hoffmann’s name and has been corrected accordingly
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