By Gavin Mackintosh-
Parents in the UK are being given Sat questions to assess their ability.
The eye of media.com have arranged with parents of 11 primary school children to take their ability in English language and grammar. The research is expected to be extended to cover at least 100 random parents of primary school children, with the aim of determining what proportion of parents have what it takes to inspire and coach their children adequately for the exams.
A number of primary schools have been approached with the idea of this research, but none has so far agreed to invite parents to participate in the exercise. Schools have voiced concerns that most parents will not want to sit the test, but the test is useful both for the training of parents and the purpose of research. 60% of primary school children passed this year Sats exams, leaving 40% entering secondary school with the knowledge that their standard of reading and grammar is below the national expected level.
The sats exams of the last two years have been the toughest so far, but there is a concern that there are many parents who would be unable to answer many of the questions asked of 10 year old’s. Parent’s should be able to coach and train their children in addition to the teaching they receive in schools. Parent’s who cannot answer any of the questions will not be inspired to coach their children in preparation for the academic sats exams, which tests the ability of final year primary pupils.
KNOWLEDGEABLE
Researchers and writers working with the eye of media.com believe parents should be knowledgeable enough about academic questions in sats exams to contribute to the preparation of their children. All participating parents in the research will be paid £5 each to sit the exams under controlled conditions.
The eye of media.com want to examine the parents of children in particular classes of specific schools in order to come out with specific conclusions that explain the standards in particular classes. The identity of all participating schools will be kept private except in the event of good results in which the schools authorise for publicity.
The tests will begin tomorrow, Wednesday, across London, Essex, Yorkshire, and Birmingham. Some researchers have questioned how objective the tests will be, considering the fact some parents will have a chance to prepare for the exams before hand. 54 year old researcher, Gary Reed, told the eye of media.com ” there will still the question of how accurately the findings of the research informs us about the ability of parents who have had a chance to go through past questions, although the assumption will be that many ordinary parents won’t bother”.
”it is already assumed that many parents will be poor in their punctuations and will not know how to answer basic questions like what a clause or a preposition is. The question will then be whether parents should be encouraged to learn the basic information their parents are being taught so that they can influence their children.