Victoria’s select-entry high schools educate almost no Indigenous students and just 4.5 per cent of their students are disadvantaged,raising concerns underprivileged teens are missing out on the elite state schools.
Students at wealthy private schools benefit from strong alumni networks,and now selective schools are trying to enlist the support of their old boys and girls.
The tests,to be sat for the first time on Thursday,will put less emphasis on classroom assessment in a bid to be more inclusive of disadvantaged,disabled and female students.
The falling number of West Australian students choosing ATAR and the ever-expanding pathways to university has education researchers searching for more ways to measure student success.
Anagrams are out,harder comprehension questions are in,and the thinking skills paper will be difficult to finish for students sitting the new selective school test.
Thinking skills will be the focus of the new selective schools test,which experts say will tilt it in favour of critical and creative thinkers.
Few look at a star football player and remark bitterly:“Well,his mother was taking him to training since he was four.” But when it comes to academic performance,it's a different story.
The key problem with the selective high school test in NSW is that it is not identifying the students with the most potential.
The number of students with disabilities being offered places at selective schools tripled this year,but,like other disadvantaged groups,they remain under-represented,new figures show
English company Cambridge Assessment will write the new selective tests,which will be delivered by Janison in a $5.5 million,five-year deal.
One parent told author Christina Ho that migrant parents would be"negligent"to simply let their kids play after school.