A new report from the Office of Education Standards shows that government high schools in the Cayman Islands are well short of where they need to be to meet accepted standards.
The newly published report says schools need to be assessed as good to meet “the expected level” of quality. Two schools, John Gray and Layman E. Scott, were judged satisfactory, while Clifton Hunter was deemed weak.
Hurting the schools most were student performance on standardized tests and the quality of instruction. In evaluating teacher performance, the largest numbers fell within the designation of satisfactory, with that category accounting for 37 percent of teachers overall.
There were a few bright spots in the report. Eight of John Gray’s 128 teachers were assessed as excellent. Layman E. Scott was judged good on student behavior, curriculum, and support and guidance.
Low points included the fact that 37 percent of teachers at Clifton Hunter received weak scores on their classroom performances. Student achievement and progress was weak in English, mathematics and science at the school. At John Gray, student achievement was similarly weak in all three subjects. Student progress at the school, measured by improvement during the year, was weak in mathematics, but satisfactory in English and science.
The report found quality teaching was especially lacking in Key Stage 3, Years 7-9.
“Across the three schools there was a relatively high proportion of weak teaching,” the report said. “This was particularly noticeable in Key Stage 3 classes, especially Years 8 and 9. Inspectors identified better quality of teaching overall in the examination classes at Year 11.”
The authors recommended that principals make unannounced visits to observe classroom teaching and align their own assessments of teaching quality with the framework provided by the Office of Education Standards.
Perhaps most troubling was a substantial drop in Year 11 performance on standardized GCSE exams, which plunged 14 percent from the previous year’s scores.
Cayman students had generally been making steady progress on improving their scores on the exams, which are critical for gaining entrance to universities in the United Kingdom. But 2018 was a substantial setback in that progress.
The largest drop was in figures for Layman E. Scott students passing five or more Level 2 passes, including the subjects of English and mathematics. In 2017, Year 11 students there led the three government high schools, with an 83 percent pass rate.
That figure plummeted to 48 percent in 2018, a 43 percent decline.
The next biggest drop was in Clifton Hunter’s pass rate for five or more Level 2 passes in any subject. The success rate dropped from 52 percent in 2017 to 43 percent this year, a decline of 18 percent.
A request for comment from the Department of Education was unanswered.
“The Ministry of Education and school leaders should review performance management and self-evaluation arrangements in the three schools,” the authors say in their report. “The quality of teaching and the curriculum offered at Key Stage 3 are not yet at the required standard to guarantee ongoing improvement to students’ attainment in core subjects.”
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