Stephanie Mills's Page

Open Letter to the Minister of Education, Hon Anne Tolley

Warning about the new National Standards system

Minister, we are education academics from the Universities of Otago, Waikato and
Auckland who attended the National Standards forum organised by the NZEI last week.
We are writing to tell you that we share the main concerns expressed at the forum about
the intended new system of National Standards.
We are deeply committed to helping primary teachers to promote high quality learning for
all… Continue

The education sector union NZEI Te Riu Roa warns that calls are increasing for National Standards to be ‘road-tested’ before being rolled out nationwide or abandoned altogether.

Information packs on the Standards and direction on how they are to be implemented are now in schools. They are expected to be introduced from the beginning of next year.

“The reality is now sinking in that the Standards are being imposed on schools with absolutely no evidence that they will raise student achievement a… Continue

You may be interested in this story just posted by NZPA...

Wellington, Nov 25 NZPA - A system of new national educational standards to assess primary school
students is doomed to fail, academics across New Zealand say.
Their doubts over the new standards-based system to rate children join those of teachers and parents
expressed earlier this month.
In an open letter to Education Minister Anne Tolley, four education academics from Otago, Waikato and
Auckland universities highlighted "fundamental… Continue

NZEI's latest press release

The education sector union NZEI Te Riu Roa says the government must recognise that a “bulldozer approach” to the introduction of National Standards will inevitably fail.

The new National Standards for literacy and numeracy will be released at the end of October, and schools will then be expected to start working with them when they open their doors for the 2010 school year.

That means principals and teachers will have just six weeks, during the busiest time of the… Continue

A number of individual principals' remarks, some of them ironic, about the risks of school league tables - and written in some cases months ago on MoE blogs - have led to a media frenzy this week. The DomPost made a virulent attack on ALL teachers http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/opinion/editorials/2823857/Editorial-Listen-and-learn-teachers yesterday. You can rea… Continue