More than 200 schools are refusing to introduce part of the Government's mandatory national standards next year after voting "no confidence" in the system.
Boards of trustees of at least 225 schools - out of a national total of 2018 - say it is time to take action against the standards, which they say are "flawed, confusing and unworkable" and need to be completely reviewed.
Newstalk ZB has also being talking about this quite extensively this morning, and is quoting as a "spokesman" for the group the Principal of Island Bay School in Wellington, Perry Rush. Quite why a school principal is the spokesman for a group of Boards of Trustees is beyond us, but we think it might have something to do with Mr Rush's long-held opposition to National Standards. That opinion is so strongly held that Mr Rush wrote an opionion-piece for the Herald in December 2009 which among other things said:
The Minister claims standards are needed to tell her how students are achieving at any given school. But Education Review Office reports comprehensively detail each school and their educational performance including student achievement data in literacy and numeracy against national norms. Why does Mrs Tolley need a process that subverts the very office designed to measure and test the quality of school performance?
The reason is obvious. The Government is committed to introducing a competitive marketplace in education. Pitting school against school is the plan the Government holds to improve student achievement. But the paucity of rigour in student achievement data generated by the standards will render schools publicly accountable for data that is simply false.
Now, we have no problem whatsoever with a school principal expressing a strongly-held opinion via the media. We do wonder however whether Mr Rush is the right person to be articulating the views of a group of school trustees however.
Another of the spokespeople for this group is Simon Mitchell, chairman of the BoT at Balmoral School in Auckland. The Dom-Post notes thus:
Simon Mitchell, chairman of Balmoral School board of trustees in Auckland, said the standards were contrary to educational research and schools did not need or want them.
"We're basically saying that we're not going to do it next year," Mr Mitchell said.
"We're meant to do certain things next year and we're going to defer those and we're not going to provide the data that the ministry says we need to."
Mr Mitchell made a pitch to be Labour's candidate at the Mt Albert by-election last year. He has also spoken out against the National-led Government's 90-day probation employment bill.
"I'm not pretending I don't have a Labour Party background, but I'm also a parent and a chair of a board of trustees at a decile 9 school in Auckland.
It would seem that there is a strong political agenda at play here, which is hardly surprising. The education sector and National governments are not traditional bedfellows. FWIW, we support the government's move towards National Standards, but we believe that Anne Tolley's leadership on this issue would probably place her in the "below average" category.
And we'll leave the final word for this post to a supporter of National Standards who has posted this on his Facebook page:
The reason I already love National Standards in primary schools: Lucy's first report listed her as just below the national average in reading. I was a little shocked. The teacher said it might be because she had some time off with the final leukemia treatments but ... Daddy put some major effort in (& so did Lucy). Today, teacher says she's on Level 16 & in top 3 in class. Thank you Anne Tolley.
19 comments:
Its a pity that Newstalk ZB is just mouthing the political views of the bloody socialists.
I have emailed the local news room to perhaps balance up their item by;
1 quoting the politics of the chair of Island Bay school BOT and the chap Rush.
2 give the number of the protesting school BOTs as a % of the whole (you and I know it is around 10%).
3 ask these twats what would they do to remedy the appalling stats that indicate more than 20% of students leave school with inadequate or no skills in numeracy and literacy.
I wont hold my breath as journalism 101 c 2010 is all about promoting the socialist line and the bods and bimbos who inhabit places like Newstalk ZB have been well prepped for the job.
yes isn't it brilliant! Communities against a system long proved to fail... wow, great to see this country has some balls after all!
x
I hope future funding for these schools takes into consideration their failure to meet reporting requirements. I'm pleased my kids' school is implementing NS as otherwise I would be with-holding 'voluntary donations'.
I attended college with Perry Rush, he was Head Boy; possibly he still thinks he is.
See DPF's post on Mr Mitchell and my own comment about his role as a community board member.
Also as a lawyer (and now as a community board member), and this just occurs to me, Mr Mitchell swore an oath of admission in which he would have sworn, as I remember it, to uphold the laws of NZ.
By his reported actions he is holding those laws in contempt.
The rat you smell is likely the National Standards.
As a parent of a child who struggled greatly with English, It would astound me at his wonderful reports, "tries hard", "good attitude" etc, when in fact he was well below his chronological reading and writing levels. This aversion to admitting there was a problem for years was incredibly frustrating, and simply resulted in us rectifying the problem without any help from his decile 10 primary school. If my son had parents such as my own, who wouldn't have given a damn, I hate to think where he'd be now. I do feel there is a place for National Standards, even as a rough guide to where our kids are at, not as a criticism to the schools.
Standards will also recognise a problem; a problem that is already recogniseable. And that's all they do. That's the point. Policy needs to improve learning.
Agreed, but in our case, the problem was never acknowledged, despite external expert tuition backing, plus simple common sense. In our case, our son has a chromosonal abnormality which we were warned could result in difficulties but our school kept insisting he was doing fine, regardless of the facts. I simply don't accept this as honest feedback.
Well said Suz. The reports I receive from my son's school are fuzzy, indecisive, and ultimately pointless. I favour National Standards!
Cadwallader
Yep Cadwallader, our reports, both written and verbal were exactly the same, at best meaningless, at worst dishonest. I personally found talking to other parents more enlightening than any codswallop we were told at any parent-teacher evening; hang out at the play-ground after school and you'll become more informed.
My child is a genius with an IQ of 201 and a very very high EQ. The last thing I want is to see herm (it's a hermaphrodite) unsure of where heshe stands in relation to all the idiots behind herm at school. The standards will certainly show how far ahead heshe is of everyone else. Which is a damn good thing!
Best of luck to Herm, not all our offspring so lucky to be recipient of such superior genes however sexually confused.
herm is not herm's name. herm is a collapsing of 'her' and 'him' to indicated hermaphroditic qualities (like heshe). herm's name is actually CLINT and heshe is case sensitive too. We named herm CLINT in uppercase because heshe shouts out the answers (always first and always correctly). Also, if you adjust the gap between the 'L' and the 'I' it gives you a male gender name with girl bits included.
:) Apologies to CLINT, I'm sure he/she is a lovely child. xox
Don't forget my unicorn xx
Was speaking to a teacher at one of the "bucking" schools yesterday. When I asked what the schools position was, the reply was considered and reasonable, they don't think a simple good/average/below system does the kids justice, and believe there needs to be an inclusion of a measure of progress a student makes which will reflect who is/not actually learning. the other major concern expressed was that the "national" standards weren't in fact national, but vary from region to region.
well put C.
yes the standards assume a linear development of skills that all children conform to. This is a fallacy. Those outside this bellcurve 'fail'. Disasterous in such a diverse country.
Who are the best readers/writers in the world? Scandanavians... they don't start school until 6 or 7.
When I saw this in the news I knew KS would have a post. I was right. I then thought we would have the majority of posts as one eyed views. I was right again.
just a couple of points from where I sit.
The Nationals Standards are poorly put together, poorly worded and have been rushed through. I would hazard a guess that most of the 200 schools have issues with this and not NS as such. However, give 2/3 years they will be a good yard stick. I feel a lot for the students going through know as they will get the rough end of the stick as the system is developed. A little like the early days of NCEA.
Secondly, how can a Principals speak on behalf of a BOT? It is like a worker talking on behalf of their boss.
National standards wont change the wording you get in reports. As a teacher I cant say what I really want to say in a report.
The reason that so many of the schools are against it gravedigger, is because National Standards have not worked overseas so why will they work here. You asked what should be done I will give you and answer - it comes back to the family. Families need to talk responsibility for the education of their children.
Schools spend so much time teaching, healthy eating, good choices, relating to others they have not time for anything else.
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