National testing for mums and dads
15th April 2011
In the following and on the ABC's The Drum I argue that in the same way we have NAPLAN for schools, we also should hold parents accountable by making them undertake national parenting tests. On the back of schools being forced to implement Australia’s National
Assessment Program Literacy and Numeracy tests (NAPLAN) at years three,
five, seven and nine beginning in 2008, Australia’s education ministers
have called for a similar testing and accountability regime to monitor
and evaluate Australian parents.
The new tests, called National
Assessment Program Mums and Dads (NAPMAD), will be taken annually by all
parents and will improve parent productivity by benchmarking Australian
homes against world best practice.
International research by the
respected economic company McKinsey & Co argues that parenting is
the strongest determinant influencing children’s educational success or
failure and effective homes have been proven to lead to better behaved,
more motivated and easier to teach students.
Characteristics of
effective parents include qualifications and annual earnings, number of
books in the home, having a loving and supportive relationship with
their children and a willingness to create a disciplined and creative
home environment.
At the moment, Australian parenting ranks below
many other OECD countries as measured by a number of indicators
including children’s wellness, educational achievement and future
workforce participation and lifetime earnings. “Gone are the day when
parents could simply disappear into their homes, do whatever they want
with their children and not be held accountable”, stated a spokesperson
for PARENTWatch, the body established by the federal government to
oversee NAPMAD.
The spokesperson, Dr Measuer Dis, went on to say,
“accountability and transparency is essential as billions of dollars
are invested in raising children. The public, along with teachers and
schools, have every right to identify and reward parents who are
successful as well as punishing those who under-perform”.
A
spokesman for the federal government’s Ministry of Plenty justified
NAPMAD with the argument that effective parenting was in the national
interest and it was time to shine the torch on Australian homes. “If
parents are doing the right thing, they will have nothing to hide”, the
spokesperson said.“After identifying the better performing parents, we
can use their expertise to help those parents who are currently
under-performing. Ranking parents and having league tables will create a
competitive environment and provide a strong incentive to raise
standards and improve performance”, the spokesman went on to say.
NAPMAD,
to be taken annually, will consist of questionnaires, surveys and tests
to find out if parents are doing what they should and are taking their
responsibilities seriously. Inspectors will also visit homes on a
random basis to carry out spot evaluations to ensure that parents are
not trying to ‘cheat’ the system.
Inspectors will be authorised
to enter homes and children’s rooms to see first hand whether parents
are implementing the government’s guidelines titled ‘Parenting
Instructions Simple and Safe’ (PISS).
The guidelines cover topics
like computer use and where computers are placed in the home,
children’s internet and mobile phone use, eating arrangements (for
example, whether families have dinner at the table with the TV switched
on or off) and whether parents read to their children on a regular
basis.
Research proves that the children of ambitious and hard
working parents achieve the best NAPLAN results and have a better chance
of completing Year 12 and gaining tertiary entry. Given the strong
relationship between annual earnings, qualifications and occupation and
children’s educational performance, parents will be asked to complete
questionaries revealing such details. Such information will be made
public on the NAPMAD website and used, on the grounds of improving
equity in education for disadvantaged children with under-performing
parents, to ensure that students from better homes are not rewarded
simply because of home background.
In addition to at-risk
children and poorly performing homes being targeted with additional
funding and programs, quotas will be introduced for tertiary entry to
ensure that children from successful homes do not get an unfair
advantage. The equity initiative builds on similar positive
discrimination programs introduced by the Julia Gillard led ALP
Government in 2010/2011.
Dr Leveller, from the Australian Council
for Equity Research (ACER), applauds the move to promote equality of
outcomes on the basis that children have no control over where they are
born or who they have for parents.
In a recent interview, Dr
Leveller argued, “Why should children whose parents have done all they
can to provide a safe, loving and educationally rich home environment be
rewarded?”
It should be recognised that not all agree with the move to monitor, evaluate and rank parents’ performance.
Test
expert from The University of Melbourne, Dr Margaret Yu argues that
NAPLAN failed to raise standards or improve results and it is wrong to
place parents under the same pressure experienced by schools and
teachers.
“Naming and shaming schools has not worked as it is
counter-productive and destructive of good education”, she said. “Also,
there is much in good parenting, like teaching, that cannot be measured
and the reality is that not all children have the same abilities,
motivation or desire to succeed. No amount government wishful thinking
and social engineering can alter the fact that there will always be some
families that fail and some that succeed”.
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National testing for mums and dads 15th April 2011
In the following and on the ABC's The Drum I argue that in the same way we have NAPLAN for schools, we also should hold parents accountable by making them undertake national parenting tests.On the b...
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