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Monday, July 05, 2010

Anne Tolley advances to bookburning for National Standards



Folks, National Standards are like Telecom XT - they don't work!

Tolley upset at paper on standards
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 Mrs Tolley wants the paper withdrawn and rewritten.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 always write papers on issues of the day, what could they have possibly said about Tolley's deeply flawed National Standards?

The paper on national standards says:

*"Schools may not have time and sufficient professional development support to become familiar with the national standards."

*"Students assessed as not achieving could lose motivation for learning, affecting their achievement."

*"Schools and teachers will need professional development assistance and support that may not be adequately provided for under the standards."

*"The standards have been designed and implemented in a short time frame that has not allowed a trial to determine whether they have been set at the correct level."

*"[League table information] does not help parents make an informed choice on what is a good school to send their child [to] and ends up unfairly labelling some schools."


So what does Anne Tolley do? The Standard points out that Tolley has the report ripped down from the website!!!

Here it is...



...and after Anne Tolley's bookburning for National Standards, it's gone...



So why are so many against these National Standards?

Because these national standards have NOTHING to do with the educational betterment of NZ's children and has EVERYTHING to do with National implementing free market ideology into education. The standards will be used to create league tables, these league tables will create a false competition, which is what National have aimed for within education since day one.

This is NOT about the educational achievement of NZ children because 1: there is no extra money to help kids who are failing, 2: national standards like this are pointless because they show nothing of any educational value because children develop at very different stages this early on in their educational life.

How do we know this to be true? Because our undisputed educationalists like John Hattie bloody well tells us so!

Here is what he has said about National's failed experiment of free market ideology in education:

Could be the most disastrous education policy ever formulated.

Will only barely raise student achievement, if at all.

Could "pervert the nature of teaching" by pitting schools and teachers against one another.

Hattie also writes that the standards themselves – the targets students will be measured against – are "untested and experimental" and need to be drawn up based on evidence, not committees.


Hmmmm, “Could be the most disastrous education policy ever formulated”, see even if I was a humper for National, surely those kind of warnings could get through and make an impact. And let's not forget Tolley lied about parental support for her league tables by stealth...

'Three Rs' plan alarms parents
AN OFFICIAL report reveals one-third of parents had concerns about the new national school standards system before it was launched – despite the government's claims the system has a "strong mandate" from parents.

These league tables National have been trying to smuggle in under the national standards regime have been sold to NZ as having the support of parents yet an official report released shows that 38% of parents made negative comments about National’s plans and only 14% made positive comments. Yet Education Minister Anne Tolley’s press release on the report read, ‘Parents support National Standards’ – no they didn’t only 14% did, 38% were negative.

National are ramming these changes through, not because they will help NZ children educationally, but because it will enable their mates in the Private Education Industry advancer their competition model.

I support our teachers and educators having the concerns they do with this free market right wing ideology Anne Tolley is masquerading as an education policy.

2 Comments:

At 5/7/10 1:46 pm, Blogger Swimming said...

Most parents will be unaware that national standards only extends to three areas of the school curriculum - and then wonder why their kids' school report says nothing about art and other areas of the curriculum being taught to their kids.

 
At 5/7/10 2:51 pm, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Living up to Commitments


Download the Report
The burgeoning financial crisis that came to a dramatic head in September 2008 after more than a year of volatile food, energy and commodity prices compounded a series of shocks already being felt around the world. As daily headlines chart the ups and downs of stock prices and chronicle the failures of financial institutions and industrial giants, the international community must take a step back and examine what is at stake for the hundreds of millions in developing countries who had benefited from the strong growth of the past decade, as well as those who continued to struggle even during that period of global economic expansion, mired in abject poverty.

As UNDP continues to support developing countries as they address the current economic and financial crisis, it is staying true to the shared sets of values as set out by the Millennium Declaration. UNDP thus remains committed to ensuring that our policy advice, technical support and advocacy for strengthening coherence is aimed at one end result: real improvements in people’s lives and in the choices and opportunities open to them.

UNDP’s commitment to capacity development – or the “how” of development – is the organization’s overarching service in the 166 countries where it has a presence. Once needs or constraints are identified – always in consultation with national governments and various local and international development partners – UNDP works with its partners in drawing up a plan of action for capacity development: it gives people, governments, institutions and communities the tools and training required to take charge of addressing their own needs in a way that can be sustainable. The demand from developing countries for capacity development support, especially in the area of developing local services increased dramatically in 2008 as countries faced the fallout from the food, fuel and financial crises. As a result, UNDP responded to requests to facilitate capacity assessments and diagnostics in 65 programme countries in 2008.

 

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