Poor report card for Curriculum for Excellence

"Scotland's new curriculum has lowered academic attainment and widened social inequality but the Scottish Government has failed to acknowledge or remedy the problem, international education analysts have been warned."

"Dr Jim Scott, of Dundee University, has told the Organisation for Economic Development (OECD) the new Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) and the associated new National Qualifications (nNQ) have had a negative impact on education in Scotland."

"However, he found no evidence that the Scottish Government has acknowledged the problem or taken remedial action."

"His researchers interviewed 60 council and school personnel involved in education governance, visited 64 secondary schools and analysed 15 years of attainment data stretching back to the earliest days of devolution."

http://www.thecourier.co.uk/news/scotland/dundee-university-educationist-delivers-damning-verdict-on-curriculum-for-excellence-1.919141

There is some discussion in the comments below the article about why Dr Jim Scott`s report is so negative about Curriculum for Excellence whereas the OECD was quite positive in its December review: Improving Schools in Scotland: An OECD Perspective.

It is true there were some positives in the OECD report: For instance, "Learners are enthusiastic and motivated, teachers are engaged and professional and system leaders are highly committed."

"There have been extensive professional learning events organised throughout Scotland. CfE has been anchored in consensus and a wider set of parallel reforms. These include teacher education, extensive work on qualifications and vocational educational and training, and the establishment of a National Parents Forum and a new Leadership College."

All very well, but what about children`s academic education?

"Education Scotland inspection reports show a minority of schools and a small share of early learning centres remain just at or below "satisfactory". In addition: There have been declining relative and absolute achievement levels in mathematics on international data. On the most recent 2012 PISA surveys, Scotland was similar to the international average after having been one of the leading countries in maths achievement a decade before. "

"Declines are also observed using Scottish data. There were smaller relative numbers of top reading performers among primary and secondary students comparing 2012 and 2014. In primary schools, there were fewer scoring at the top in 2013 in numeracy compared with 2011, and larger numbers of low performers in secondary schools."

"There are particular challenges confronting secondary schools. Liking school drops sharply among secondary students and reported belonging in school among Scottish teenagers has dropped since 2003. National surveys show a higher incidence of low achievement against expected level among secondary pupils than previously."

This is despite the fact that personalisation, wellbeing and GIRFEC are touted in the classroom.

http://www.oecd.org/education/school/Improving-Schools-in-Scotland-An-OECD-Perspective.pdf

I really don`t see the positives.