The Case for a PISA Alternative? Exploring the Global Educational Reform Movement

Part One: The Global Umbrella

In the global economy, the benchmark for 
educational success is no longer merely 
improvement by local or national standards, 
but the best performing education systems 
internationally

Andreas Schleicher 2014

Education remains one of the key battlegrounds for any government in the build up to an election. Candidates in government or in opposition lay claim to having the answer to solve educational concerns, usually countering any policies that have been put in place over the last term in office. However, now education is no longer a national battleground for politicians but a global one. Stakeholders and global education providers such as Pearson, OECD, UNESCO and McKinsey & Company and research by sources such as CEM and Fischer Family Trust in England, NCATE and the NRC in the United States are providing policy makers with data provision that profess to have the answer to any presumed educational mishap or failure. As such, governments and politicians are entering the educational battleground armed with massive amounts of analytical detail and statistical evidence that claim to provide the correct pathway out of perceived national educational poverty to the Valhalla of international educational acclaim.

The most successful of these provisions is the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), developed by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which triennially examines the comparative performance of educational systems across the world. Grek, 2009 p.1 states that PISA ‘through its direct impact on national education systems… has become an… influential tool of the new political technology of governing’.

Andreas Schleicher, the Deputy Director of the Directorate for Education at the OECD, is a key player in the development of PISA becoming a significant tool for governments to measure educational success. It is his belief that ‘knowledge and skills have become the global currency in the 21st Century’ and states on Pearsons ‘Five Things I’ve Learned’ website that ‘[t]he goal of the past was standardization and conformity; now it’s about being ingenious, about personalizing education experiences.’ In theory this is encouraging – an educational approach that breaks away from conformity, promotes individual learning and supports inventiveness. However in practice this seemingly freewheeling approach has seen a greater focus by many educational systems on exactly the opposite; conformity, standardisation and an educational model, driven by global educational reformists that is impoverished in it’s application of holistic and creative learning as they try to attain high scores on the PISA tables.

This essay will explore some of the global education reforms that are currently being implemented across the world and try to make sense of the seemingly contradictory remarks made by such policy advisors that are resulting in educational austerity, at least in the places where they are being strictly adhered to. First, however, it is important to consider in greater detail the process that has taken the implementation of transnational education ‘to be a concern of the highest political priority’. (Hingel 2001 p.10)

[W]e are witnessing across the globe a robust anticipatory and proactive interest in OECD’s Programme for International Student Achievement (PISA). PISA is no longer just a ‘results phenomenon’. PISA leaders are increasingly getting at what lies behind the numbers and are thus generating key insights and questions.

Michael Fullan (McKinsey 2010)

The OECD’s PISA study, alongside the data from PIRLS, TIMSS and other studies, have transformed our understanding of what works

Michael Gove 2014

[T]he last round of QCDA-led changes… remain informed by a nationally-introspective approach and appear under-informed by lessons from transnational comparisons

Oates 2010 p.5

The sources that organisations use to glean their information are vast. McKinsey refers to 20 different school systems from around the world, PISA/OECD have access to 65 countries and represent ‘more than 80% of the world economy’ (PISA Results Summary 2012), whilst Oates refers to 3 large-scale international surveys – PISA, TIMSS and PIRLS. It would seem to be the case that their extensive research is worthy of listening to as so much evidence, from so many global sources, must provide significant findings regarding answers to successful educational reform. Indeed the provision of knowledge regarding an education systems performance in relation to another; be it a study of students attainment of literacy or mathematics, pedagogy delivery models or teacher and school accountability can be seen as an excellent source for planning and preparation for a country’s personal contextualisation. Yet the narrowing band of analytical performance, with its focus on mathematics, reading and scientific literacy is meaning governments and policy makers are focusing their research and subsequent demand for reform on a particular classification of educational attainment. An example of such an approach can be seen in two separate quotes from Andreas Schleicher regarding educational analysis in Wales and the United States:

1. Mr Schleicher criticised Wales for a lack of long-term vision for education. He said: ‘Your education system today is your economy tomorrow. There's a very, very close linkage between the skills that people develop in school and what they're able to do later in life. Our economies are evolving very rapidly. The demand for better skills, for the right skills. The knowledge economy no longer pays you for what you know... it pays you for what you can do with what you know.’ He also criticised the mindset of Welsh students.

[source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-27785129]

2. The increasing impact of advanced skills on people's life chances -- whether it is employment, earnings or social participation, makes it a priority to do better in providing all talented students, regardless of their background, with access to advanced education…. it is also clear that an increasing number of countries have approached and surpassed U.S. graduation levels and others are bound to follow over the coming years.

[source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andreas-schleicher/us-education_b_2268873.html]

Schleicher is quick to use the same rhetoric for two completely different education systems at different levels (one secondary and one higher education), both of which appear to need to address aspects of its approach to learning and student success. The threat of failure in comparison to other nations is the stick he uses to drive home his point and the evidence he presents is PISA data. Yet in the case of Wales at least a viable and alternative PISA run test presents the argument, as claimed by TLTP Education Recruitment (April 2014), where ‘[a]ccording to the OECD, the UK school system is producing kids that are teeming with cognitive fluidity and equipped with fully developed transferrable thinking skills’. Yet nothing was made of this contradictory and quite significant compliment by the British government. Indeed as Grek, 2009 p.5 cites, PISA ‘does not examine students’ mastery of school curricula nor does it pay attention to less explicit educational aims that resist measurement (e.g. democratic participation, artistic talents, understanding of politics, history etc)’, which then ensnares any national reforms to follow the PISA status quo.

The history and demand for the global knowledge economy, at least in European terms, can be traced back to the implementation of the European Space of Education; co-operation between member states to deliver quality education with the intention ‘to enhance the quality and relevance of human capital development’. In 1976 what Hingel 2001 p.5, describes as the ‘Eurydice action in the field of documentation and statistics’ was set up. It’s intention, in the longer term, was to measure pupil achievement, external evaluations and self-appraisal in schools through the form of quality evaluation and the involvement of stakeholders. Hingel, 2001 p.6, shares with us that in the development of a European Model of Education:

the increasing knowledge on national educational systems have played a central role. The Eurydice collection and analysis of data and information, in close co-operation with Eurostat, has been primordial.

Almost simultaneously in the United States the publication of A Nation at Risk in 1983 targeted the American system of schooling with remarkably similar language to that used by Mr. Schleicher in its fears of being left behind in a global education race and claimed the ‘unimaginable [in the fact that] others are matching and surpassing our educational attainments’. It used in its reforms what were only described as ‘notable programs and promising approaches [and] existing analyses of problems in education’ sensationally stating on page 1:

[i]f an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to impose on America the mediocre educational performance that exists today, we might well have viewed it as an act of war.

Aronson & Anderson 2013, make it clear that this report, where ‘reformers were able to legitimize their belief that only by tightening control over curriculum and teaching… and making education more disciplined and competitive’ has led to the implementation of market-based reforms that connect globalisation and economic competition. This ‘governance by comparison’, as called by Martens 2007 and cited in Grek 2009, through the quality evaluation of educational measurement, particularly by external sources, has paved the way for stakeholders such as the OECD and it’s subsequent PISA programme where, ‘[t]hrough its statistics, reports and studies, it has achieved a brand which most regard indisputable; OECD’s policy recommendations are accepted as valid by politicians and scholars alike.’ Grek 2009 p.3.

The educational reforms in China and Asia followed later than in Europe and the United States but they have not been any less aligned to global capitalism. China launched their New Curriculum Reform in 2001 and S. Guo et al. 2013 p.259 state that ‘[u]nder China’s market economy, education is also undergoing the process of marketisation, and privatisation in terms of orientation, provision, curriculum and financing.’

The 34 nations that are members of the programme, and 31 additional other countries that refer to the results have created a competitive global umbrella that currently covers all 65 educational systems desperate to nurture student excellence in mathematics, reading and science to ensure they have the 'positive learning climate' required to 'produce the vanguard of a competitive, knowledge-based global economy' (PISA Results Summary 2012). In the mean time the less explicit educational aims, regarded as so by PISA, leave a generation of students at risk of a lack of creativity, awareness of social justice and cultural learning. 

The second of three parts of this essay will be posted soon and will explore 'The Economy of Performance versus Ecologies of Practice' - the conflict between the new educational objectives aligned to economic focused outcomes and the traditional social, moral and cultural status of teaching. 

GERM - Global Education Reform Movement

GERM - is it losing momentum? 

http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/news-and-media/blogs/warwick-mansell/does-goves-demotion-show-education-reform-has-a-popularity-problem/

The NAHT has a long way to go to prove to teachers that they feel GERM is detrimental to our education system and personally I think it is too much to hope for at present but I am delighted it is even being discussed. 

Pasi Sahlberg - newly added to the web links below, and well worth exploring, shares some thoughts on GERM & PISA and the Finnish approach to education (as shared by Kevin Courtney (NUT) via twitter recently). Something appears to be being lost in translation:

So why do head teachers in the UK appear to be getting it so wrong when converting the OECD/PISA data and expectations into school policy? Any thoughts or answers would be appreciated as I am currently constructing an essay on this topic and reader input - via any good web links or your own thoughts would be appreciated. The essay will appear in chunks on The Unlesson Manifesto over the next couple of months. 

Through a glass darkly....

The tech utopia nobody wants: why the world nerds are creating will be awful http://gu.com/p/4v54g

Spot the Statistical Anomaly

Something struck me the other day with greater clarity than normal. I was teaching a class of GCSE students and helping one girl in particular. On this occasion she smelt so badly that I could not physically inhale without choking. I worked closely to her for approximately 5 minutes trying very hard to inhale as minimally as possible and only breathe through my mouth. As I moved away I stood and watched my class and observed the following things:

One student had asked if she could sleep during my lesson as she had been up all night dealing with her new born sister as her mother was unable to attend the baby. She had her head on the table. Another had a TA (teaching assistant) working closely with them as they have a learning age of an 8 year old.

The lesson was interrupted by a younger girl who had walked out of a maths lesson as she had had enough and she came to find her sister. Both girls live practically on their own as mother is such a complete alcoholic who does not function in any capacity. She politely asked to stay and as 'on call' were aware of her movements I happily let her sit down and join in.

Another student, who had failed to do any work for the past 2 hours was now working quietly - she is on the police aware terror suspect list and often makes threats of bomb making and suicide.

Two other students were drawing on their arms. One has a lot of scars from self harming. It was the first lesson back for her due to being kept in 'inclusion' for 7 weeks due to refusal to change hair colour. The other was possibly abused as a child, the investigation is ongoing. The content of the conversation was graphically sexual in nature.

Yet another student had headphones in their ears and was talking loudly about becoming a DJ. There are significant drug references in the conversation and often drugs have been taken before attending school.

One other always arrives and sits doing nothing, for every lesson. Never once producing a single piece of work in the whole year.

These are tiny snippets of only 10 students from one class of 22. It is quite an abnormal class for my school but not for hundreds of others. Five different classes of kids will pass through my classroom in a day. Each one of the children in every class will have a story; they may not have eaten properly that day or they may have had a problem in a previous lesson resulting in them feeling disengaged. One's mother may be dying from cancer whilst another's father passed away in a car accident the previous year. Another one might have seen a promising sports career go up in smoke as they have just had to have serious knee reconstruction surgery. Others still might just find growing up a little bit tough and despite all the love and support from a good family unit they just don't care enough about school.

Whatever the story (all true and plenty, plenty more) it is my job to engage them, motivate them, make them laugh, encourage them to learn, discipline them, listen to them and support them.

Regardless of the statistical data, the measurements of progress every 7 weeks, the amount of marks and feedback I give them or what I tell their parents or carers, in the end some of them will surpass their predicted grades, others will not attain it. I will do my best to help them, I will try and encourage them to do their best as they work with me.

But they are human beings, individuals with problems, baggage, self-confidence issues, pressures and passions. The only thing they have in common is that not one of them is a statistic.

Data works, it's extremely useful sometimes. It works particularly well on a large scale. It works rather less well when reduced to a class size or an individual. I'm not only a teacher, I'm a manager. I use data every day. I often question the arbitrary data that comes in telling me that young Samantha attained level 5 in ks2 (key stage 2) numeracy so therefore she should secure a grade B in GCSE Art but I keep it, monitor it and add it to my own data. I just don't treat it as more important than any of the individuals I teach in any of my classes. I never will.

Education Reform Summit, London 10th July 2014

https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/michael-gove-speaks-about-the-future-of-education-reform

The Education Secretary spoke to the members of the Education Reform Summit as teachers and other public workers marched in strike action nearby. It's a very interesting speech and worth a read. It does underline the intention of aligning educational reform with economic globalisation where measurement across nations, in the form of PISA, is pressurising our managers to conform to the multi-national framework of performance - despite the illusion of increased autonomy spoken about throughout the speech, but below are several excerpts of other issues raised that I want to touch on in this short blog:

'In the past, great teachers - and indeed education ministers - have operated in isolation from any systematic and rigorous analysis of which of their interventions worked. Views on pedagogy or funding had to be taken on trust.

But in the last decade there has been a much more rigorous and scientific approach to learning. Instead of a faddish adherence to quack theories about multiple intelligences or kinaesthetic learners, we have had the solidly grounded research into how children actually learn of leading academics such as E.D. Hirsch or Daniel T. Willingham....

...Underperforming schools taken into the academies programme and placed under the leadership of great heads are improving more rapidly than those schools which remain in the hands of local politicians.

A stunning example of what’s happened under this programme is the progress made by a school in London which used to be called Downhills Primary and which has been reborn as Harris Primary Academy Philip Lane. [Please view Academies & Lies film linked below on the right]

When Downhills was under the control of local politicians, it failed its pupils year after year.

...The unions, in the past, have claimed to ‘stand up for education’. Today they’re standing up for their own pay and pensions.

I urge them to join all of us in this hall, all of us who are really standing up for education - putting education first and foremost - and the education of our most deprived children most of all.'

This rhetoric, which is the promotion of 'new' policies spun out of attacks on 'old' ideas, is an example of the marketplace in which the contemporary global education model has been placed aimed at furthering economic interests in the 'knowledge-based economy'. Or as Stephen Ball puts it in Big Policies/Small World:

'[O]ne key facet of the policy process and the formulation of new orthodoxies is critique. New policies feed off and gain legitimacy from the deriding and demolition of previous policies (see Ball, 1990) which are thus rendered `unthinkable’. The `new’ are marked out by and gain credence from their qualities of difference and contrast. In education in particular, part of the attraction of a new policy often rests on the specific allocation of `blame’ from which its logic derives. Blame may either be located in the malfunctions or heresies embedded in the policies it replaces and/or is redistributed by the new policy within the education system itself and is often personified - currently in the UK in the `incompetent teacher’ and `failing school’ (see Thrupp (1998) on the politics of blame).'

The speech may promote the current neoliberal agenda with a naturally positive spin but as Ken Jones writes in The Politics of Austerity:

'In terms of education, England is experiencing a less severe austerity than Spain or Greece. Cuts in spending, pay and pensions rights are significant, but are not at Greek levels, Youth unemployment is high, but has reached less than half the height of Spain - and so on, indicator by indicator. Nevertheless, in many respects, the programme of restructuring that accompanies austerity is more sweeping than that of other countries: the complete withdrawal of state funding for undergraduate arts, humanities and social science courses; the cutting of financial support for 16-18 year olds; the loading up of university graduates with as much as £45,000 of debt; the transfer of more than half of England's secondary schools to private management; revisions in curriculum and assessment that most experts think will increase educational failure'

In this instance I am seeing very little evidence of the 'celebratory, ambitious, inspiring day for all of us' that Mr. Gove shared with the Education Reform Summit.

The Subordination of Public Interest to Private Interest...

One of the best banners I came across at the London rally today. There is a lot of good content and compelling research over at the blog linked below on the right entitled 'Disgruntled Teacher'. Do spend some time looking at this valuable commentary. 

Marching Again

Dear friends in education,

I am travelling into London as I write this. Another strike, another march. Another attempt to tell this government and this education secretary that their policy to align education to global economic demands and outcomes is not the right way to engage learners. Education is not about measuring progress and diminishing a breadth and depth of experience to a selective few subjects where learners will continue to regurgitate 'knowledge' to secure grades. It is not about securing quotas of students into a higher education system where this attack is further along the line than we currently see in secondary and primary schooling. It is not about offering up a free system of learning to corporate practices that carry both political and economic agendas. Education remains about instilling a love of learning for life. My own educational measurement is reasonably poor - 8 Scottish standard grades (only 4 of which were graded 3 or higher) and 2 Scottish highers (1 graded B and the other a D). Hardly earth shattering. Yet I am in the classroom teaching the next generations. Why? Simply because I was encouraged to love learning, both inside school (despite reasonably poor academic attainment) and at home. This love of learning sat dormant until I turned 20 when I decided to return to college, apply for university to study Fine Art and then practice secondary pedagogy in Art & Design. I am now half way through an MA (and doing considerably better at academic attainment!) At 35 years old my desire for knowledge - real knowledge, is still increasing and my daily job is to instill this life long love of learning in others. I strike again today not to break a child's education or to cause their families disruption. I strike for exactly the opposite reason; to warn children and their families that without teachers who care so passionately for their children's quality of education they are walking blindly into an education model that is, at a fierce rate, destroying their educational chances to become life long learners who love to be educated and want to educate others. Sometimes you have to fight in this life. This is one of these times.