The NS apply to all year 1 to year 8 students within English medium schools as of January 2010. Notably, exceptions have been made for Maori medium schools whilst appropriate Maori mediam National Standards are developed. Currently the English medium NS have been developed for reading writing and maths. They set expectations of the skills that students should be able to demonstrate after their first year, second year and subsequent years up to their eighth year of primary schooling. $36 million NZD has been earmarked for providing resources to students who are struggling to meet the National standards on to of $26 million earmarked for providing professional development.[1]
The implementation of national standards requires action across multiple stakeholders within the education sector. The following gives a brief overview of those stakeholders and how national standards will impact them.
The Minister of Education
Under the new legislation, the Minister of Education is able, by notice in the NZ Education Gazette, to set agreed upon national standards in literacy and numeracy. The Minister’s role is to inform the education sector of changes and developments in NS as they arise, and thus what is required of schools regarding reporting requirements and teachers regarding standards to be assessed against. While the current NS are in literacy and numeracy there is flexibility in the legislation for standards to be developed in other areas.
Teachers
Teachers are at the forefront of the implementation process of NS. They are required to formulate reports to parents/caregivers at least twice a year on their child’s progress against the NS. The method they choose to report against NS i.e. the tools they use for assessment, and the format they use to convey the results of assessment is dependent on the school, however, it must be in ‘plain language’ for parents/caregivers to understand. The desired behavioural change is that teachers will use the NS to inform their teaching and the results of assessments against NS will be used to inform their future practice.
Boards of Trustees and Principles
The NS legislation makes amendments to the National Administration Guidelines and sets out ‘statements of desirable principles of conduct or administration for specified personnel or bodies.’[2] In particular the amendments mean that BOTs with year 1- 8 students are required to include school level data in their annual reports and use the NS to report under three specific headings 1) school strengths and identified areas for improvement 2) the basis for identifying areas for improvement and 3) planned actions for lifting achievement. BOTs will also need to report the numbers and proportions of students achieving at, above, below and well below NS, including Maori, Pasifika and gender (where this does not breach an individual’s privacy).[3]
The desired changes are that Boards of Trustees will be reporting to key stakeholders aggregate results pertaining to achievement against NS and using these results to inform areas for improvement.
[1] Anne Tolley, ‘National Standards Training for Trainers’ http://www.beehive.govt.nz/speech/national+standards+training+trainers
[2]Ministry of Education, ‘The National Administration Guidelines’ 2010 http://www.minedu.govt.nz/NZEducation/EducationPolicies/Schools/PolicyAndStrategy/PlanningReportingRelevantLegislationNEGSAndNAGS/TheNationalAdministrationGuidelinesNAGs.aspx#NAG2A
[3]ibid