Critical Writing Essay Test Match

Critical Writing ‘Hot Topic’, Annual Testing For Public Schools.
Written by Maddie Sutton.
Student I.D: 2120860.

The article ‘Test Match,’ focusing on the new Government plans to ensure public school students are annually tested in key areas literacy and numeracy was showcased on the front page of The Advertiser on April 29th, 2013.

The article is mainly written from the Education Editor’s and Government’s perspective, speaking about what the plan involves and what they are going to put into the plan to make it work. It has direct quotes from Jennifer Rankine, the Education Minister and also from a parent, who is featured in the photo for the article, Jill Beauer. By including diverse, positive points of view from important and related people, the author is led to believe that the public, Government, education minister and education editor all agree the plan is going to be a successful addition to the education system. By the article having such a positive mood, it convinces the reader to think positively about it as well. Personally, by reading the article I thought that it seemed like a very foolproof plan, but after doing some research and finding a video that was shown on Seven News, teachers and parents are not so satisfied with it. The reason for this is that parents believe they are the best judges of how their student is going, and that they are already tested enough. I believe the article Test Match, is somewhat biased, as it didn’t speak from the perspective of a teacher at any point and it only spoke about the positive of the project, and didn’t include how the extra testing could effect the children’s learning in other subjects.

Set over two pages the article has a large, bold and underlined headline to draw the audience’s eyes to the key words of the title, ‘Test Match,’ with a smaller heading above saying ‘Annual exam to rate all public school students.’ I believe there are numerous reasons the article was continued on a separate page of the newspaper, one being that the article is quite lengthy. By putting only some of the article on the front page it intrigues readers to go to the page it’s continued on. Also, by having half on the front page and the rest on the other page, there was room for a sizeable headline on the first page of the article and a photo on the second.

The photo used is a photo of a mother with two children and a dog, which is presumably their pet. In the photo, the family is walking to school in their uniforms and all have cheerful facial expressions making the audience believe they are happy with something. The reason the author would have chosen this photo is that the photo makes the reader assume they are happy with the Government’s decision to introduce the annual testing. Furthermore the caption of the photo being ‘STEP IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION: Jill Beauer, with children Ben and Olivia, welcomes the Government’s moves to better support student learning,’ it confirms that the family are all for the Test Match plan which gives the article a positive vibe.

The article speaks about the implications the project will have on the focus groups students, educators teachers, and education itself in great depth, to encourage readers to support it one hundred percent. As well as providing information about what the project will offer, it also speaks about the reason behind the project, being that the South Australian literacy and numeracy achievement levels are well below the national average.

Below are some of the many changes the project will bring:
-The project is developing a new way for teachers to monitor students for their own needs and to give

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