- The Australian Tertiary Enrance Rank (ATAR – formerly UAI in NSW) is, as its name suggests, a RANK. A rank against other students. This means that everything students have worked for over the HSC year is reduced to little more than a rung on the ladder, where it’s only possible for a few to stand at the top.
- Students who are competing for grades don’t tend to like helping each other learn. The HSC encourages selfishness in learners.
- HSC marks are divided into BANDS. Band 6 (marks of 90-100) is the highest. Everyone wants a Band 6. Or “at least a Band 5!” In his review of the HSC in 1996 Professor Barry McGaw recommended the removal of Band labels, explaining that schools, students and parents were largely ignoring rich assessment feedback relating to actual learning outcomes. Instead they were simply increasing pressure on kids to attain high status Bands. But the NSW BOS ignored McGaw’s recommendation (and the NSW government later introduced mandatory A-E report grading for all primary and secondary students to boot…that’s when the angels really started howling)
- School is supposed to be a place where you receive an education that promotes social, emotional, physical and cognitive growth. Credentialing methods that only report on academic achievement undermine the work that schools and communities to do to help students grow into healthy, happy and resilient human beings.
- There is no way to acknowledge students who are acheiving their personal best. It’s all about who wins…and who loses.
Don’t even get me started on how the whole process is geared toward selecting which students will enter which University course – despite the fact that only 30% of students will actually go to University. Or on the research findings of studies of the effect of stress, anxiety and depression on student motivation and goal orientation. Or on how an exam driven curricula encourages teaching to the test over promotion of engagement and deep knowledge.
I don’t mean to take the buzz away from any Year 12 teacher or student out there today who is enjoying shiny results. If you’re wondering, I’m very pleased with mine. But the conversations I’ve had to listen to today (and every other year when these results bear down on schools) have made me sick to the stomach. HSC and ATAR scoring is my very least favourite part of being a teacher…I hope the utopia I’ve heard about up here in Queensland is everything it’s cracked up to be.
Posted by kellimcgraw on December 17, 2009 at 11:29 pm
Interestingly, “Atar” is also the Zoroastrian (Persian) concept for “burning and unburning fire”, and is ‘iconographically conflated with fire itself, which in middle Persian is ataksh‘
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atar)
Posted by Troy on December 18, 2009 at 5:53 am
Clapping and trying to whisper to colleagues who were upset with ‘their’ results that it is, after all, a number…also I am currently teaching at a school that has never had an Indigneous student complete the HSC. Sure, the students with Indigenous heritage may have moved into highly successful areas, but I’d give all our Band 6s up for the 20 or so Indigneous students in 7-10 to get through to the HSC…
Posted by kellimcgraw on December 27, 2009 at 6:39 pm
It’s certainly somethng that should force us to reflect on our priorities, and perhaps rethink our approch to the new teaching year.
Posted by kmcg2375 on January 5, 2010 at 6:11 pm
One colleague commented after reading this post that I had been a bit cynical, and that schools do and value far more than the HSC.
I always bristle at being called cynical, but I shouldn’t, because I am. And the HSC is one of my pet issues to rage about. I think the Stage 6 curriculum sidelines any development outside of academic, and that although individual school do much to educate the ‘whole child’, the will of the HSC permeates every institution. We don’t look after Senior students well enough in terms of their physical or mental health. We think nothing of making three assessments due on the same week and basically saying ‘too bad’.
So, no apologies for the cynicism, but now for some constructive thinking about how to improve the situation, rather than just bitch and moan about it
Posted by Scribbler on January 5, 2010 at 6:46 pm
Qld is heading in your direction. Mandatory A-E. Teach to the test NAPLAN and other stuff is in full swing here in the ’smart state’. Boo hoo to us too.
Posted by Kym on February 26, 2010 at 6:57 pm
I agree about point number 2. The HSC has been making me constantly compare myself to others. I’ve never felt so down throughout my school years as I do now.
Posted by kmcg2375 on February 27, 2010 at 2:19 pm
That is sad to hear Kym
It is hard when the focus of learning is just to beat other people. Don’t worry – once the HSC is finished you can focus on shaking those bad habits! Your learning should be about you – your passions and your interests. There is so much more in the world to look forward to than you can even imagine, and the HSC will not be the thing to make or break that.
Keep your spirits high, and believe in yourself
(and thanks for your comment. this motivates me to focus even more on student experience in my future research.)