National Standards undermine real change
12th September 2009

Mel is indignant. She sits in the corner of the staffroom and puffs herself up. “Well, I don’t know what all the fuss is about National Standards. When I was teaching in London I taught right through their national testing and I can tell you it’s brilliant.”

Heads turn - this is a view of the world we haven’t heard before.

Mel continues. “National testing is so satisfying for the teacher. You know exactly what you have to do and you can work really hard to get the children through the test. I was starting at 7.30 in the morning with extra classes for kids at risk, with other classes on Saturdays and all sorts.”

“What did the kids think of it?” Julie voices our common thought.

“The kids were actually learning real stuff for a change: facts, figures, information.”

“And were you teaching to the test?”

“Of course. The idea is to get your results looking as good as you can. And it works, my class got really good results. I mean, you cram it into them and they won’t remember much of it six weeks later but it’s very satisfying teaching.”

Mel is satisfied - she sips her tea with satisfaction. The rest of us sit uncomfortably.

I generally avoid writing about my day job in this column but there are some things afoot in education that need to be aired outside staffrooms and the offices of policymakers.

Anne Tolley, the education minister, has set as her priority the introduction of national standards in literacy (English to our generation) and numeracy (Mathematics). She maintains that parents throughout the country are crying out for clear standards. I talk to parents and I haven’t heard these cries but I must believe Mrs Tolley because she is the government.

To be clear, the minister says she is not planning to introduce a national testing regime like Mel enjoyed in England. National Standards in New Zealand will be a set of benchmarks against which children’s progress is measured using a range of assessment methods (including tests).

Generally the profession feels comfortable with the concept of standards but their introduction at this time is overshadowing the implementation of a new national curriculum. The New Zealand Curriculum is a blueprint to transform schooling from the factory model we’ve worked with for a century. It addresses areas of low performance like the relatively poor achievement levels of Maori and Pasific Islanders by enabling teachers to develop educational programmes that are meaningful and engaging for these students.

Schools have been working for years on the New Zealand Curriculum, which comes into effect in 2010. It is the most significant reform of education in 20 years, drawing together the best of curriculum content and teaching skills.

National Standards on the other hand are about assessing and reporting student achievement – a necessary part of the process but not one that should drive the education system. Assessment belongs in the back of the bus. The front seats should be occupied by strong curriculum and excellent teaching. Prioritising assessment is like driving the bus in reverse, and a bus driven in reverse will never perform at its best.

This is the lesson of Mel’s experience in England. Teaching to the test improves student achievement in only the most facile sense. It does nothing to inspire thirst for knowledge or prepare a child to become an independent life-long learner.

I cannot say whether the introduction of National Standards is a deliberate attempt to undermine the New Zealand Curriculum but that threatens to be the outcome. Support services to schools are being axed or diverted to the National Standards. In 2010 schools can expect no professional advisory support in science, physical education, the arts, social studies and a raft of other curriculum and skills areas. Programmes like the Literacy Professional Development Project that are proven to lift student achievement are being curtailed or cut.

These changes are happening within a wider climate of austerity. In 2010 the government plans to pull $45,000,000 out of the education payroll, with a further $50,000,000 to go in 2011. This is at a time of growing school rolls.

Another change will see Canterbury lose $860,000 of funding for specialist education services over the next three years, leaving schools and teachers grappling with rising problems of learning and behaviour and denying service to children with specialised needs.

The government may believe that National Standards will enable it to improve our education system even as it cuts resources. Time will show that simply weighing the pig more often does not make it fatter.