More schools turn backs on tests

By LIBBY MIDDLEBROOK education reporter

Schools are dropping traditional tests for 7- to 14-year-olds that assess reading, listening and maths skills.

The number of primary, intermediate and secondary schools ordering Progressive Achievement Tests (PATs) this year has fallen 20 per cent compared with four years ago.

The tests have been used by teachers since the 1970s to assess children's grasp of the basic skills at the beginning of each school year.

An expert in gifted children's education is concerned by the fall in PAT usage by schools, because the tests could sometimes identify bright children who did not usually perform well in other classroom exercises.

"They can be a really useful alert that a child is bright, where a teacher may not have noticed through their work or during observation," said Waikato University education lecturer Roger Moltzen.

He said gifted children were good at hiding their ability, and if their talents went unnoticed, they could "get lost" in the school system.

"Sometimes if children are not challenged, they can get frustrated, bored, and turn off."

In 1996, almost 90 per cent of the country's then 2320 primary and intermediate schools ordered PATs, and 98 per cent of the 336 secondary schools made use of them.

(PATs, which are updated and distributed by the New Zealand Council of Educational Research, assess listening, reading and vocabulary and maths across three different tests.

Council researcher Karyn Dunn said the organisation had stopped producing a study skills PAT in 1998, which could explain part of the 20 per cent decrease in schools using the tests.

She said the council developed a new test in 1999 to replace the study skills PAT. It was being used widely in schools today, but was not a PAT.

Teachers also had greater access to other assessment tools and information - through the internet and educational research.

"It's dropped off, but teachers have more choice and alternatives in terms of how they assess students."

Manurewa South Primary School principal Nola Hambleton said that teachers at her school used only a limited number of PATs these days to assess students in standards two to four.

She said some of the tests were outdated and not suitable for assessing some students at the school, because of issues such as culture.

"There are a lot of other resources that give us the kind of information that will give us just as much, if not more, than we would see in a PAT."

But Royal Oak Primary School principal Megan Bowden said that teachers ordered every PAT that was available to students in standards one to four.

"We believe they give us a clear indication of where our children are in relation to the rest of the country. There's not much else around in terms of these sorts of tests."

The tests cost 14c each and are marked by teachers at the schools using them.