Education Minister Anne Tolley is to complain to the Speaker Lockwood Smith over a Parliamentary Library research paper on national standards in primary schools.
Mrs Tolley said the paper was "unprofessional", "highly political" and so biased it could have been written by the union opposing the policy.
Mrs Tolley wants the paper withdrawn and rewritten.
Library researchers frequently produce papers on topics of the day, on the economy and legislation before the House.
What was our first thought? Didn't one of The Standard's former authors go to work at the Parliamentary Library after the 2008 election? We do believe he did. So we wonder - what IS "Steve Pierson" up to these days? Perhaps we've just found out.
UPDATE: While we were posting, DPF has also blogged on this, and his piece includes a link to the actual paper, along with some comments about about the independence pf the Parliamentary Library, and how this has changed in recent years.
UPDATE II: DPF's link doesn't work, so here is a link to the paper in question.
8 comments:
showing some luv to my playas in the hood...
...peace on out wit ya bad self
Typical Ann Tolley. When someone provides logical information into why the standards are a waste of time and money she suddenly seems interested.
Ozy and Pollywog, you've both nailed it. And let me add that Tolley is incompetent and on a personal crusade.
And the teacher unions aren't on a crusade of their own Anon?
No one doubts they are on a crusade. To get more money for less work!!
Not all PPTA members are pro unions or disagree with where the government is taking schools.
However, that doesn't hide the fact that the National Standards are a waste of time and money. They have not been thought through properly and wont make one bit of difference to teaching and learning in New Zealand.
Ozy it is not often I disagree with what you say but we are poles apart this time. It seems quite apparent to me that this is an attempt by the left to sabotage a very important and necessary educational platform.
It is well past due to have proper monitoring of childrens progress through school and to stop the decline in educational standards which have occured over the last 40 years.
If that means National Standards and league tables so be it.
We cannot allow what appear to be Labour plants in the Parliamentary Library and the teacher unions to dictate to the government.
I agree with some of what you say PDM.
Firstly, our education system needs an overhaul. However I don't believe that public league tables work from my experience in the UK.
The real issue is not what we teach but the teaching environment. There is little respect and consequences within our current system and until that is fixed there will be problems. That is for a different time though.
The National Standards put forward by the National Government are not actually National Standards.
An important fact which I believe many parents fail to understand is that there is no one assessment that is used to determine if a student is reaching the new National Standards. This means it is left up to teacher’s judgement to determine where kids sit on the levels. Perhaps we should look at the Year 7 Reading Standard as an example. The standard states that
By the end of year 7, students will read, respond to, and think critically about texts in order to meet the reading demands of the New Zealand Curriculum as they work towards level 4. Students will locate, evaluate, and synthesise information and ideas within and across a range of texts appropriate to this level as they generate and answer questions to meet specific learning purposes across the curriculum. The text and task demands of the curriculum are similar for students in year 7 and year 8.
Compare this to the expectation that the National Standards have with Year 8.
By the end of year 8, students will read, respond to, and think critically about texts in order to meet the reading demands of the New Zealand Curriculum at level 4. Students will locate, evaluate, and synthesise information and ideas within and across a range of texts appropriate to this level as they generate and answer questions to meet specific learning purposes across the curriculum. The text and task demands of the curriculum are similar for students in year 7 and year 8.
As you can see the standards are almost exact. The document then goes on to say that the difference between year 7 and 8 is this
The difference in the standard for year 8 is the students’ increased accuracy and speed in reading a variety of texts from across the curriculum, their level of control and independence in selecting strategies for using texts to support their learning, and the range of texts they engage with. In particular, by the end of year 8, students need to be confidently and deliberately choosing the most appropriate strategies for reading in different learning areas.
So how does a teacher work out the difference between someone working at the year 7 standard or the year 8 standard? Well according to the Ministry website
“Teachers will use a range of assessments to make an overall teacher judgment to work out where each child is at, what their next learning steps are and to set goals.”
Basically as a teacher I have to use my professional judgment and rank students against the National Standards. Ironically this is what I am already doing against the achievement objectives within the curriculum. I will have to be able to justify my judgments, which I have to at the moment, at the end of the day it is still a call based on opinion and not facts.
Do you really think that there is going to be a fair Standard across all of New Zealand if we leave it up to teachers to decide what level students are working at? This is especially so when all the information goes straight to the MOE.
I would be happy to use standards and many of the teachers I work with feel the same. They would be a benefit for our education system and provide a benchmark for our students and parents. However, the current standards are not real standards. They are wishy washy statements in the air open to interpretation by everyone.
I hope this explains my concerns with the standards.
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