AS 2016 drew to a close, Strictly Come Dancing, The X Factor and The Apprentice all crowned new champions while the losers clapped on the sidelines. Meanwhile, in the Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa), the biggest education tournament of them all, Scotland recorded its “worst scores ever”.
The news seemed to shock many but the truth is that only a Christmas miracle could have saved Scotland’s Pisa stats.
Literacy standards, for example, have fallen in the long term. This is evidenced by previous Pisa rounds and confirmed by our own Scottish Survey of Literacy and Numeracy, as well as teacher judgement data. Back in 2000 and 2003, Scotland was significantly ahead of the international average reading score but a sharp decline followed in 2006. Since then, we have effectively been treading water - until now.
This dip is not because of anything we’ve changed; rather, it is a case of other countries getting better faster than us. With literacy, particularly the teaching of reading, we’re doing what we’ve always done, instead of ensuring that our pedagogy is informed by the latest research.
Despite Scotland’s international renown for the Clackmannanshire findings on systematic synthetic phonics (which had a significant impact on global policy), tragically, we continue to ignore these lessons. Our reading practice is led by resources; any research used is a relic. (Multi-cueing, miscue analysis, running records, Reading Recovery, sight words - I’m looking at you!)
Reading is not an optional extra. The effects of illiteracy and poor reading on educational outcomes and life chances, not to mention self-esteem and wellbeing, are well documented.
If we continue to employ reading practices that are not evidence based, our nation’s decline will continue.
Despite the data, many were quick to defend Curriculum for Excellence, clamouring to attack Pisa as a blunt instrument that doesn’t measure “what we’re really doing in schools” or “what we value”.
I want our children to have it all - problem-solving, creativity, critical thinking.
We need to realign the balance, reintroduce rigour to our classrooms, with protected time for core teaching and basic skills. We need to prioritise our way through curricular clutter and realise that teaching cannot be carried out entirely through games, group work and discovery learning.
We need to stop licking our wounds, stop complaining about the “injustices” of Pisa and testing, and take decisive action to remedy our reading practices to ensure that they are research-informed. Our children are waiting - right now they’re the losers, and that’s the real injustice.
Anne Glennie is a former primary teacher and works as a literacy consultant through her organisation, The Learning Zoo
