Purpose of the National Standards
In proposing the Education (National Standards) Amendment Bill in December 2008, Minister of Education, Hon. Anne Tolley, declared a vision for New Zealand’s children and young people that they would have “…the basic skills they need in order to do well at school and to succeed in the workforce.”[1] The National government’s proposal, Tolley insisted, would provide external benchmarks that when made explicit in the National Education Guidelines would sharpen the education sector’s focus on the improvement of student achievement. [2]
Statistics stating that approximately 50% of Maori learners leave compulsory schooling with no formal qualifications and reports published by the Education Review Office (ERO) that conclude around 1 in 5 students leave compulsory schooling with little or no formal qualifications have served to bolster the idea that urgent action is needed.
In line with Tolley’s proposition, The Ministry of Education explains on its website that:
“National Standards aim to lift achievement in literacy and numeracy (reading, writing, and mathematics) by being clear about what students should achieve and by when. This will help students; their teachers and parents, families and whānau better understand what they are aiming for and what they need to do next.”[3]
This statement implies firstly that there is currently an undesirable level of underachievement in literacy and numeracy and that NS are a tool that will assist in addressing this. Also implicit is the second gold of NZ – that families and communities are provided with understandable information about their childrens’ achievement
In 2007 the Education Review Office reported that 49 percent of primary schools were generally ineffective at reporting achievement information to parents and to their community. When introducing the NS Tolley explained that “The aim of this policy is to ensure that parents get that information, and that they get it in a form they can understand”.[4] The new policies require that schools report twice a year to parents and caregivers ‘in plain language’ the progress of their children in reference to achieving at above or below the NS.
How will they know when they are successful?
Whilst the aims of the policy suggest that success will be measured by the extent that reporting in ‘plain language’ by Boards of Trustees and schools to parents is occurring and levels of student achievement are being lifted, the ‘intentions’ of the policy outlined in the National Standards: School Sample Monitoring and Evaluation Project (established to evaluate the implementation of the NS between 2009 and 2013) gives clues at a more specific range of ‘success indicators’ for the NS these include:
- National Standards will provide clear information about student achievement for Boards of Trustees which can be used in decision making and resource allocation processes.
- Teachers will make defensible, trustworthy judgments against the National Standards
- Information from National Standards assessments will be used by teachers and schools to monitor student progress and achievement against the Curriculum.
- As a result of using National Standards to monitor achievement and progress some students will be provided with targeted teaching interventions.
- Student achievement will improve.
- Schools will use National Standards assessment information to communicate clearly with families about their child’s achievement and progress.
- National Standards information will be used to identify teachers’ professional development needs. This will enable these to be addressed more effectively.[5]
If we are to view these ‘intentions’ as a basis for what might indicate the success of NS then it is clear that the desired outcomes are broad and multiple. Whilst the broader purpose of the policy is clear and less controversial (raising student achievement) the mechanism used (introducing NS) seems to have only a vague correlation to achieving some of the desired outcomes above. In particular, it is not clear how determining whether a student meets a national standard in literacy or numeracy and conveying this information to parents/caregivers and students correlates to a raft of adjustments in behavior (i.e. instructional practices, parental support) that may, or may not, contribute to lifting student achievement.
[1] New Zealand Parliament Education (National Standards) Ammendment Bill – First Reading, Second Reading in Committee 9 December 2008, Hon. Anne Tolley http://www.parliament.nz.ezproxy.auckland.ac.nz/en-NZ/PB/Debates/Debates/2/e/0/49HansD_20081212_00001605-Education-National-Standards-Amendment-Bill.htm
[2] ibid
[3] Ministry of Education ‘National Standards’ 2010 http://www.minedu.govt.nz/theMinistry/EducationInitiatives/NationalStandards.aspx
[4] New Zealand Parliament Education (National Standards) Ammendment Bill – First Reading, Second Reading in Committee 9 December 2008, Hon. Anne Tolley http://www.parliament.nz.ezproxy.auckland.ac.nz/en-NZ/PB/Debates/Debates/2/e/0/49HansD_20081212_00001605-Education-National-Standards-Amendment-Bill.htm
[5] Maths Technology Ltd, ‘National Standards: School Sample Monitoring & Evaluation Project- Mid Year Report Survey of Principals and Analysis of Report Formats’ Ministry of Education: Wellington (October 2010): 21