Institutional, organizational, and procedural changes required to support national standards
The Ministry of Education
Implementing NS requires that the Ministry of Education (whilst not mandated under the legislation to do so) assume the role of disseminating information about NS to educators parents, Boards of Trustees (BOTs), researchers and students. The Ministry publishes resources to assist in the implementation of NS such as exemplars, curriculum documents and advice to parents on what they can expect from their schools through their website. They also offer support to Boards of Trustees and schools on professional development and training to use the national standards and are responsible for administering the additional funding earmarked to assist NS implementation.
Ongoing Ministry of Education funded professional development is available to school leaders and teachers in the form of seminars across the country and the establishment of networked learning clusters (NLC) and is delivered by private learning institutions i.e. Learning Media, Team Solutions, Accent Learning etc. Investment in professional development is not limited to educators but is also extended to school boards.
Professional development is crucial to realising the goal of using NS nation wide and can be seen as a strategy to allay fears over misinformation of NS and give a detailed insight into how educators and boards will be able to use the NS in their schools.
The Ministry of Education also plays a role in establishing an evaluative framework for the NS. The MoE funds the official evaluation of NS which has been contracted out to a private firm ongoing for until 2013 (This will be discussed in more detail under Provisions for Evaluation)
Schools and Boards of Trustees
Investment by the Ministry of Education has meant the development of innovative strategies to assist Boards of trustees to meet the new requirements of the policy such as ‘webinars’[1]. Currently proposals for a series on how boards should use NS in reporting is to commence on November 15th 2010. Other information is available on the Ministry of Education and New Zealand Curriculum website assist boards in understanding their role in developing a context where NS can work and how to fulfil obligations under the new policy.
[1] ‘Webinars’ are presentations of information available on the world wide web. They are similar to video clips but often include slides and accompanying voiceovers to disseminate pertinent ministry of education information to interested parties. See the below for details Ministry of Education ‘Publications and Resources’ http://www.minedu.govt.nz/Boards/EffectiveGovernance/PublicationsAndResources/WebinarResources.aspx