Talking-up Scotland

Here’s how BBC Scotland headlined the same results:

‘Figures show drop in Scottish pupil literacy rates’

Here’s an extract from the Scottish Government release:

‘As in previous surveys, the majority of P4, P7 and S2 pupils are performing well or very well in reading, with around four in five pupils in both P4 and S2, and around nine in ten P7 pupils reaching this level. In both P4 and P7, reading performance was slightly lower than in 2012, whereas performance in S2 remains similar to 2012. The figures also indicate that almost around two-thirds of P4 and P7 writing assessments demonstrate pupils performing well, very well or beyond the relevant level for their stage. At S2, 49% of scripts demonstrate pupils are performing well, very well or beyond the level. Performance in P4 is similar to that in 2012, whereas P7 and S2 show declines over the period. In listening and talking, three in five P4 pupils, two thirds of P7 pupils, and around half of S2 pupils are working well, very well or beyond the level. These are similar to the 2014 results.’

It’s all a matter of what you want to report.

You probably know the Scottish Government has developed a detailed plan to improve things further. See:

National Improvement Framework for Scottish Education

In the light of comments by Theresa May and Ruth Davidson about the Scottish Government getting on with the ‘day job’, you might like to know what Professor Andy Hargreaves of the Lynch School of Education in Boston, who is one of the Scottish Government’s international education advisers had to say about the situation in England

‘England is now a policy vacuum. No character, no focus, no sense of what England’s citizens, its young people should become. Just markets, academies, grammar schools. Choice, fracturing, segregation. More of the inequalities that separate each of us from all the others around us. More intersecting identities less interacting identities.’

Looks like a mess to me. At least we have a coherent plan.

https://news.gov.scot/news/scottish-survey-of-literacy-and-numeracy-ssln-2016-literacy

https://www.holyrood.com/articles/news/top-adviser-john-swinney-attack-standardised-testing