The answer has always been an unequivocal "No" for a variety of reasons, including a philosophical disagreement with the thought of select young people having an innovative, engaging learning experience while others in a class next door look on.
It came as a surprise when reading through our research report to realise that - inadvertently - for the first time in 2013 we have a control group of students in one of our cohorts. It was the transition from Year 8 in our primary schools to Year 9 at Tamaki College that enabled this. When data was collected in Term One from e-asTTle testing in Reading, Writing and Maths there was a cohort (one third approx) who had participated in the Manaiakalani programme when they attended Manaiakalani primary schools, and a cohort (approx two thirds) who came from a wide variety of primary schools from around Auckland and beyond. This second group mostly came from low decile schools also.
The difference in e-asTTle data was surprising, even to us true believers.
The full report is available online and pages below are referenced from this document.
This commentary was provided by Prof Stuart McNaughton in the brief summary of the report:
Students entering Year 9 (2013) (into Tamaki College) from the Manaiakalani schools had higher average achievement levels than those from elsewhere, supporting evidence that the primary schools are having some success in achievement levels, compared with students from schools in like circumstances. The two thirds of students who came from outside the cluster were two sub levels below the others in reading (3B). This meant the total cohort entering Year 9 had widely spread achievement levels.
The patterns for maths and writing were similar but at lower levels.
The Reading image is taken from page 122 of the report.
The cohort on the left are the Year 9 students who were at Manaiakalani primary schools in the previous year.
The cohort on the right came from 'Other' primary schools.
This is the most startling contrast , with the red line indicating the gap between the two groups of students' achievement in Reading at Year 9.
The Maths image is taken from page 158 of the report.
The cohort on the left are the Year 9 students who were at Manaiakalani primary schools in the previous year.
The cohort on the right came from 'Other' primary schools.
The Writing image is taken from page 177 of the report.
The cohort on the left are the Year 9 students who were at Manaiakalani primary schools in the previous year.
The cohort on the right came from 'Other' primary schools.
The challenges our high school teachers face in effectively teaching this diverse group of students are huge.
"The pattern (also) indicates a substantial challenge catering for the range and especially the very low group, who have reading skills and knowledge which are not sufficient to engage effectively in reading in subject areas at expected levels without intensive support. The level of the challenge is such that they need to make up four full curriculum levels by Level 2 NCEA for the school to meet the 85% pass rate." p11
It appears as though the students who were in a control group learned more and advanced. Is this a situation in which control groups a becoming more popular? If so how will the students that are not advanced as shown in the studies be caught up. This sounds like an excellent thing as well a disadvantage
ReplyDeleteHi Natalie, the control group was unintentional as we do not agree with creating them intentionally! The nature of our cluster (district) is that children turn up to enrol from all kinds of unexpected places from around the city at our local high school. This is what created the 'control' group. The kids who had come through from the local primary schools in our cluster tested significantly higher on enrolment than the kids who had not been through our local primary schools. And they are all from a similar background (low socio-ec and either Maori or Pasifika).
ReplyDeleteThere is nothing the school can do about this as they are obliged to enrol all who turn up at the beginning of the year. As you point out, this is creating quite a significant challenge for the teachers who have a group who are academically advanced AND digitally savvy and another group who are neither of those things.
Thanks for your reflections.
Natalie,
ReplyDeleteWhat a pleasant surprise to find a control group to compare the success of program implementation! But at the same time, there is such a challenge to close the gap in achievement level. It's nice to have data supporting the successes because it gives the primary schools metrics that support continuation of the program and may give reason to expand into other areas and higher education levels. One way to address the gaps may be to create mentor pairs or groups where students from the Manaiakalani schools work with those students who weren't as lucky to be exposed to that incredible program. Great work! Do you have an update on possible plans to close the gaps?