全国学力テスト 適度な競争が好結果を生んだ

The Yomiuri Shimbun
Competition brings improvement in national school achievement test
全国学力テスト　適度な競争が好結果を生んだ

Regions that previously produced poor grades were showing significant academic improvement, which may be the fruit of nationwide achievement tests for children.
　成績の振るわなかった地域で、学力の向上が目立った。全国学力テストの成果の表れだろう。

The Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry released the results of the test it conducted in April this year.
　文部科学省が４月に実施した全国学力テストの結果を公表した。

The test has been implemented since the 2007 school year for primary school sixth-graders and middle school third-year students to measure the basic understanding and applied skills of Japanese language and arithmetic or mathematics.
　全国学力テストは、小学６年生と中学３年生の全員を対象に、国語と算数・数学の基礎的な知識と応用力を測るため、２００７年度から実施されている。

Under the administration of the Democratic Party of Japan, the tests were conducted in the 2010 and 2012 school years by selecting about 30 percent of primary and middle schools nationwide. But from the last school year, all primary and middle schools have been required to participate in the test.
　民主党政権時代には、１０年度と１２年度に約３割の小中学校を抽出して行われたが、昨年度からは全員参加方式に戻った。

This time around, sixth-graders in Okinawa Prefecture showed outstanding improvement. They have no lowest-ranking subjects according to prefecture-by-prefecture data. They rank within the top 10 on the basic understanding of arithmetic.
　今回、成績アップが目立ったのは、沖縄県の小６だ。全国最下位の科目がなくなり、算数の基礎問題ではトップ１０に入った。

The sixth-graders in Shizuoka Prefecture, previously ranked lowest on their basic understanding of Japanese language in the 2013 school year, recovered to almost the average national level this year.
　昨年度、小６国語の基礎問題で最下位だった静岡県も、ほぼ全国平均に回復した。

These municipalities that once had poor results are emphasizing classes where students express their opinions in writing.
　こうした自治体では、児童生徒に、自分の考えを文章にまとめさせる授業に力を入れている。指導力向上のための研修会に参加する教師も増加した。

The teachers are also increasingly participating in training sessions to improve their teaching skills and are even interacting with those in high-ranking prefectures such as Akita and Fukui to gain insight into their teaching methods.
　成績上位の秋田県や福井県などの教師との交流を通じて、指導方法を学ぶ試みも進んでいる。

Detailed results available

Education ministry analysis indicates that such efforts to improve teaching methods raise the general level of academic ability. The change could also be the result of full participation in the national achievement test, which has produced moderate competition.
　文科省は、指導改善の取り組みが、学力の底上げにつながっていると分析している。全員参加の全国学力テストが、適度な競い合いを生み出した結果と言えよう。

However, in general, both sixth-grade primary school students and third-year middle school students have a consistent tendency to be weak in applied skills, such as proving a problem using figures and expressing writers’ intentions with sentences.
　ただ、小６、中３とも、図形の証明や、書き手の意図を文章で表現するような応用問題を苦手とする傾向が続いている。

Based on the latest national test results, we hope each municipality will strive further to improve teaching abilities while referencing a collection of ideas for classes that the education ministry plans to distribute to primary and middle schools in September.
　今回のテスト結果を基に、文科省が来月配布する授業のアイデア例などを参考に、指導力の一層の向上を図ってもらいたい。

For the latest test, municipal boards of education were able to release school-by-school results.
　全国学力テストについては、今回から、自治体の教育委員会が学校別成績を公表することが認められるようになった。

But to prevent promoting the grading of schools and inviting excessive competition, the education ministry has urged each municipality to announce not only numerical results, such as the average percentage of questions answered correctly, but also analyses of the test results and how academic abilities can be improved.
　文科省は学校の序列化や過度な競争を招かないようにするため、平均正答率などの数値だけでなく、分析結果や改善方法を併せて公表するよう求めている。

The Japan Teachers’ Union opposes the revelation of the numerical results because the grading of schools is inevitable and will cause children excessive stress. But is that really so?
　日教組は数値を示せば、序列化は避けられず、子供に過度なストレスを与えると反対するが、果たして、そうだろうか。

At what point are children suffering setbacks in learning? What measures should be taken to improve their academic abilities? Sharing common views between teachers and students’ guardians on the basis of the test results will enhance the understanding of how school education should be conducted on the side of the guardians.
　子供たちはどのようなところで学習につまずいているのか。学力アップには、どのような対策が必要なのか。テスト結果から、教師と保護者が共通の認識を持つことで、学校教育に対する保護者の理解が進むはずだ。

Most municipal boards of education are said to be cautious about publicly releasing school-by-school test results. The education ministry needs to make the merits of releasing the test results more widely known.
　大半の教委はまだ、学校別成績の公表には及び腰だという。文科省は、公表のメリットを周知していく必要がある。

(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, Aug. 26, 2014)