Content-type: text/html Downes.ca ~ Stephen's Web ~ ATARs measure privilege, not academic merit, and it starts in kindergarten

Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community

If we combine the philosophy of testing with the well-established fact that socioeconomic status is the best predictor of academic success, then we must draw the conclusion in the title. This article is a forthright and frank story about how that played out for one person. "I failed school because I grew up in a world that exists beneath yours. I learnt a range of skills that helped me survive in the impoverished world I was born into. But the more I learned about negotiating that world, the more I found myself pushed out of the mainstream one where "normal" kids did well at school."

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Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
stephen@downes.ca

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Last Updated: Dec 24, 2024 11:30 a.m.

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