Covid keeps quarter of a million pupils off school in England

A quarter of a million pupils in England are absent because of Covid as schools struggle to cope in the last week of term.

Half of staff are off in some schools as head teachers said the new wave had caused chaos across the country.

They said this morning that some parents were choosing to keep children off school because they were so concerned about the Omicron variant. Schools are cancelling nativities and end-of-term, concerts and some are struggling to keep teaching with widespread absence of staff and children.

The latest figures, relating to last Thursday, show 236,000 pupils were off for Covid-related reasons from state schools in England. Cases are expected to have increased since then.

Total attendance was 88.9 per cent

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/covid-keeps-quarter-of-a-million-pupils-off-school-in-england-dqwtw9x9h

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President of the NEA Raises Eyebrows After Expressing Her 'Pressing' Goal for Schools

Is there any hope that U.S. public schools will ever get back to the basics of reading, writing, and arithmetic? Under the current leadership at the nation's largest teachers unions, it does not appear that will happen anytime soon.

Becky Pringle, president of the influential National Education Association, is raising eyebrows after telling The New York Times about her "pressing" goal for schools.

She wants to "reclaim public education as a common good, and transform it into something it was never designed to be: racially and socially just, and equitable."

And that's not just a future vision, either. According to The Times, the NEA has been pushing full steam ahead.

This year, the N.E.A. published its Racial Justice in Education Resource Guide, which advises teachers on how to directly address issues such as white supremacy, implicit bias and acknowledging how race influences their work. Over the summer, at the union’s representative assembly — where Mr. Biden addressed the group, calling the N.E.A. “indispensable” — delegates voted to pour $675,000 into measures to “eradicate institutional racism” in public schools.

In response to growing protests against teaching students about the legacy of systemic racism, which conservative groups deride with the umbrella term “critical race theory,” the union also began an “Honesty in Education” campaign that supports teaching “truthful and age-appropriate accountings of unpleasant aspects of American history.”

In addition, the N.E.A. has pledged more than $56,500 to research conservative groups that it said were “attacking educators doing anti-racist work.” (NYT)

The report acknowledges that Pringle has "alienated members with her platform," but that's not all. In response to the story, many social media users just asked that she do her job and focus on the basics of education.

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/leahbarkoukis/2021/12/14/teachers-union-head-wants-education-pulled-even-further-left-n2600548

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Australia's NAPLAN: Principals and teachers say it is ineffective and outdated, in Australian Education Union survey

Parents and education experts have hit out at principals and teachers after a survey slammed the national NAPLAN tests as being “ineffective and outdated”.

Australian Parents Council President Jenni Rickard also rejected claims in the survey by the Australian Education Union that the tests increased teachers’ workload, saying NAPLAN was about recording a “point in time” and there should be no prepping.

Ms Rickard said NAPLAN was also valuable to parents as an independent assessment and “a mechanism to ensure government departments are accountable and transparent”.

“It works as a test of the whole system from the bottom to the top,” she said.

The Australian Education Union surveyed more than 260 public school principals and nearly 3000 teachers across the country,

It found 73 per cent of principals believe NAPLAN increases teacher workloads; 86 per cent said the tests contribute to students’ stress and anxiety and 59 per cent said they make no difference to student outcomes.

More than 60 per cent of teachers said NAPLAN – undertaken by students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 – was an ineffective diagnostic tool.

Education author Dr Kevin Don­nelly criticised the AEU for its long history of opposing tests such as NAPLAN, saying it did not want schools to be held accountable for the billions invested and the fact students’ results in international tests were going backwards.

“We need NAPLAN to monitor and evaluate whether standards are improving or not,” Dr Donnelly said.

But AEU Federal President Correna Haythorpe said “NAPLAN is not fit for purpose in our schools” and should be scrapped and replaced with classroom-based and teacher-led assessments, along with sample-based testing.

Whites Hill State College Principal Andrew Beattie, based in Queensland, said NAPLAN caused “performance anxiety” among the children, especially in Year 5, as their results could determine which high school they went to.

He said many hours were wasted teaching children how to do the “unique” exam, instead of teaching them numeracy and literacy.

New analysis of this year’s NAPLAN results out on Wednesday shows students in Years 3 and 5 reading, Year 5 numeracy, and Years 3 and 5 spelling have significantly improved nationally since the tests began in 2008, but these improvements were not reflected in every demographic group, according to the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA).

“We can now also see that the main group of students who fell behind the national average in Years 7 and 9 reading and Years 3 and 7 numeracy, compared to the base year, were students whose parents did not complete Year 12,” ACARA CEO David de Carvalho said

He defended NAPLAN, saying it allowed parents, teachers, schools, education authorities, governments and the broader community to determine whether or not young Australians are developing the necessary literacy and numeracy skills.

Acting Federal Education Minister Stuart Robert added that NAPLAN has been critical to tracking student educational outcomes, especially during Covid.

https://www.couriermail.com.au/education-queensland/naplan-principals-and-teachers-say-it-is-ineffective-and-outdated-in-australian-education-union-survey/news-story/d5d9917a475ac0afdc9d65c545bca6e0

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