Blogs - National Standards

Use your school newsletter to start the National Standards debate

Principals around the country have been using their school newsletters and blogs to begin the debate about National Standards in their communities. Post yours here too. Waverley Park School Waverley Park School Newsletter.pdf Waverley Park School Newsletter2.… Continue

Added by NZEI on November 26, 2009 at 11:00am — No Comments

Academics join the fray with open letter to Anne Tolley

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

Added by Stephanie Mills on November 26, 2009 at 10:25am — No Comments

CALLS MOUNT FOR NATIONAL STANDARDS TO BE ROAD-TESTED OR ABANDONED

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

Added by Stephanie Mills on November 25, 2009 at 2:30pm — No Comments

ACADEMICS JOIN CHORUS EXPRESSING DOUBTS OVER EDUCATION STANDARDS - NZPA story

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

Added by Stephanie Mills on November 25, 2009 at 2:27pm — No Comments

A soup

I have penned a short piece published in the ODT today. Enjoy! http://www.odt.co.nz/opinion/opinion/82698/testing-times-all-round Continue

Added by Perry Rush on November 20, 2009 at 3:35pm — No Comments

Where to now?

Yesterday Invercargill principals were treated to a 2 hour "don't interrupt" lecture from Ministry personnel. Interspersed amongst the warm fuzzies in the power point were constant references to the legality of the standards and what we had to do in 2010. While a lot of schools have probably left the standards in the package they come in, in the hope our National Principal Association would recommend sending them back or some such action we were told in no uncertain terms this would be illegal.… Continue

Added by Peter Forde on November 19, 2009 at 6:11pm — No Comments

The Three Rs”: Reduce, Regiment, and Ruin our public education system

http://blog.greens.org.nz/2009/10/22/the-three-rs%E2%80%9D-reduce-regiment-and-ruin-our-public-education-system/ It wasn’t much fun waking up this morning to the news that the Ministry of Education will no longer be providing advice to primary schools on arts, science, technology, or physical education – nothing in fact, except the “three Rs”: reading, writing, and ‘rit… Continue

Added by Dellis Hunt on November 8, 2009 at 10:01pm — No Comments

National does not believe science should be taught in school

http://www.brad.net.nz/blog/2009/10/national-does-not-believe-science-should-be-taught-in-school/ http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/stories/2009/10/22/1245ce3b9622 Primary schools have been told that art, PE and science are to take a back seat to the three Rs. The Ministry of Education has told schools they wil… Continue

Added by Dellis Hunt on November 8, 2009 at 10:00pm — No Comments

Have you got research that supports National Standards?

Please if you have some research that will back this then link me to it so I can consider it. Have been looking for weeks now and I am still to find something that convinces me that my gut feelings and opinions and research from many, many people are wrong and national Standards are a good thing for our precious children. "http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=10605223">http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=10605223 'Pr… Continue

Added by Dellis Hunt on November 7, 2009 at 8:00pm — No Comments

Minister defends education standards ahead of announcement

http://www.3news.co.nz/Default.aspx?TabId=423&articleID=126603&cat=260&ce2637=1#comment The following comments have been made by Tolley: 'Teachers will need to know how a student reached an answer, rather than simply whether the answer was correct.' 'It was about "digging into" how a student learnt.' I am appalled as National Standards is about quantitative reporting s… Continue

Added by Dellis Hunt on November 7, 2009 at 7:45pm — No Comments

NAG 2a in regards to National Standards

I have included the NAG 2a which came out in a circular 2009/12. Tolley has said that results will not be used in league style tables. Item (c) shows reporting to the BOT annual report which as you know is publically available. The press knows this and it doesn't take 1 + 1 to get to 2 and see that media will have everything they need to publish league tables. A correspondent has suggested that the results could be required to be sent to a research organisation for in depth analysis and kept o… Continue

Added by Dellis Hunt on November 7, 2009 at 12:55pm — No Comments

My concerns as a parent

Hi all Yes my posts are selective but I am choosing to put up a selection of issues which worry me as a parent. To be honest, as I have trawled through the news articles the opposition to National Standards has far outweighed the positive so if you are worried that I am being one sided skim through the articles yourself for reassurance. http://www.stuff.co.nz/ search: 'National Standards' and Parents Against Labelling' Continue

Added by Dellis Hunt on November 7, 2009 at 10:07am — No Comments

Potential of league tables

South Canterbury Primary Principals Association President, Mr Frazer: "The big concern is, will it be turned into league tables? That would potentially be quite damaging." He said the closure of Christchurch's Aorangi School was a test case of what the national standards could possibly result in. A review of Aorangi was announced in June, saying it would have to close because it would cost more than $2 million to rebuild the school, which had a falling roll. But Ms Tolley cited problems over… Continue

Added by Dellis Hunt on November 7, 2009 at 10:02am — No Comments

Intereted in your feedback

An interesting point brought up by a school parent that I have not actively thought about. What do professional teaching staff think about this? The Dominion Post asked parents at Clyde Quay School in Mt Victoria what they thought of the Government's national standards policy for primary schools. John Birkett, 39 "I am pretty happy with it. Teachers do their best and hopefully this will put some onus on parents to take more interest in their child's learning." Continue

Added by Dellis Hunt on November 7, 2009 at 9:52am — No Comments

Introduction of National Standards

'The Principals Federation, which branded the introduction a "sad day", called for the standards to be scrapped and wanted the Government to start from scratch. Federation president Ernie Buutveld said schools could already identify pupils at risk of not achieving and make changes themselves.' http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/education/2996428/Principals-boycott-sad-day Continue

Added by Dellis Hunt on November 7, 2009 at 9:49am — No Comments

Governmaent restriction of advisory services

The most recent trigger for this debate has been the news that the Government has decided to restrict the expert advisory services available to primary teachers to only a core group of numeracy and literacy subjects, with any savings being diverted into the national teaching standards exercise that is to begin next year. Not surprisingly, these moves to eliminate expert support for teachers in areas such as science, music, art and physical education are being hotly resisted by the teacher union… Continue

Added by Dellis Hunt on November 7, 2009 at 9:40am — No Comments

Cambridge University independent review

In Britain, a Cambridge University team has just completed the largest independent review of primary education in Britain in 40 years. The report contains strong criticisms of the centralisation of education, the narrowing of the curriculum, and the impact of continuous testing. Rather than serving as an early-warning system detecting those at risk, continuous testing is – in the view of the Cambridge University experts – more likely to become a premature badge of failure.… Continue

Added by Dellis Hunt on November 7, 2009 at 9:39am — No Comments

What do young children need in order to learn?

Ok so it is probably worthwhile to have some signposts for our primary and intermediate children. How about signposts that indicate what our children need to be able to do to participate in this knowledge age instead of a narrow focus on what teachers should teach within a couple of isolated subjects? What do you think? Continue

Added by Dellis Hunt on November 4, 2009 at 10:51am — 2 Comments

The Three Rs' - Respect, Rights and Responsibility

George has sent me an email and the last paragraph hit home to me. He is talking about the issue of bullying in schools and and says the following: 'Toward the end of the interview, David (Rutherford) asks for more attention to another set of 3 R's of education - Rights, Respect and Responsibilities. If the fixation with literacy and numeracy persists, and the impact on motivation is what has been reported overseas, then these bullying statistics may not be set to improve in the near future.'… Continue

Added by Dellis Hunt on November 4, 2009 at 10:37am — 2 Comments

Editorial last weekend you may find interesting...

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=10605223 This editorial from the Herald on Sunday, together with Steve Braunias' spoof diary of Anne Tolley in the Sunday Start Times on Sunday was a welcome reprieve from the generally anti-teacher, blindly pro-league tables approach of most of the major dailies. However, it's interesting to note that a recent Ot… Continue

Added by Stephanie Mills on October 30, 2009 at 8:31am — No Comments

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