Let us be very clear right from the start – despite their distaste for the idea, maths teachers’ concerns about the new maths syllabus are not solely about being banned from using numbers to assess student performance.  They are about being forced to use an entirely new system without being given adequate guidance, in-service or time to implement it properly.

How should such a change be introduced?

Just for a moment, let us consider McDonalds, the world famous fast food provider, and imagine that they wish to introduce a new burger – the ‘No-numbers Maths burger’.

How would they go about doing this?  Would they send out to each franchise owner a brief summary of the tastes they wish the customers to experience upon eating one of these new burgers and then leave it up to each of them to work out the ingredients they will use at their particular outlet, along with the methods of preparation, the packaging, the advertising, etc?

And would they then insist that each year all of their franchises put together a package containing the recipe they used, preparation methods, samples of the very best burger they made, the worst burger they made, and various others from in between?  And would some Burger Review Panel then review all of these packages and send out feedback to all of the franchises about how they felt each one had done?

Not if they wished to remain in business.

We all know that the vital feature of McDonalds burgers is that you can go to any outlet – Surfers Paradise, Bejing, Katmandu … wherever – and you will be guaranteed essentially the same burger!  It’s comforting, it reminds you of home and it works.

And it’s interesting to ask what the essential element is in assessing maths students throughout Queensland (or any state, for that matter)?  The answer is consistency, just like McDonalds burgers.  Without that, our entire system is critically flawed and although we may not go broke as McDonalds might easily do if they used such a flawed system, we will have a hell of a time giving kids the results they deserve (and might just send a few thousand Maths teachers to an early grave in the process!)

So what would McDonalds do?  Most likely they would have a central body that is tasked with trialling and perfecting not only the correct tastes for their new burger, but also a precise list of ingredients, method of preparation, system of packaging, advertising campaign, and so on.  Only once they had completed this entire process would they risk trialling the new burger in actual stores.  And once they did, they’d seek detailed feedback about everything and meticulously adjust the product and processes accordingly.  By the time it became available in all stores, the entire package would be flawless, and they would know they were on a winner.

Perhaps there are a few lessons here for the QSA.