National Standards boycott from the best public education system in the world

Delay National Standards, Labour says
Labour is calling on the Government to delay the introduction of National Standards in schools following a decision by 225 school boards to refuse to work with them.

The boards said yesterday they had no confidence in the standards and would defer setting student achievement targets.

Labour leader Phil Goff said the system the Government was trying to ram into place wouldn't succeed.

"Schools should be required to use the world-leading assessment tools already in place, not be required to use this untested, unclear and confusing system National is trying to impose on them," he said.

"The Government should take time to get it right."

Primary teachers union NZEI said today more boards would join those protesting.

Anne Tolley has done a shit job of running this, the question will be when can Steven Joyce take over. IF National Standards are not about imposing league tables by stealth to aid the private education industry, then Tolley has been useless at bringing teachers with her on her claims that primary school children need a special measurement system. These claims have been made a million times more difficult because world recognized educational expert John Hattie has damned National Standards so conclusively by saying that they...

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, ‘Patents support National Standards’ – no they didn’t only 14% did, 38% were negative.

Tolley has been a dreadful Minister and has done an appalling job of working with Teachers, National Standards are either an attempt to benefit private education at the cost of public education or they are simply the most disastrous education policy ever formulated.

The question we need to ask is, if we have one of the best public education systems in the world...

Expert gives education system top marks
Leading educationist Professor John Hattie has given a more glowing assessment of the education system than the Government often gives it.

He told the Labour Party conference in Auckland on Saturday that parents often underestimated where the New Zealand system stood internationally and thought it was about average when it was among the best in the world

"We are way up there at the top. Something is going right."

Professor Hattie, an assessment specialist, has recently advised Prime Minister John Key and Education Minister Anne Tolley on the implementation of National's contentious national standards policy in primary schools, which National says will lift standards.

Professor Hattie largely avoided the subject on Saturday though he said that average standards for reading, writing and maths over the past 50 years had not changed.

While that might not sound impressive, the system was already near the top of the world.

...then why is National so keen to destroy it?