June 11, 2013
Standards data meaningless numbers
There has been condemnation from teacher unions and opposition parties to the release of the 2013 aggregated National Standards data for years 1-8 pupils.
Education Minister Hekia Parata says the data, which shows an increase in reading, maths and writing standards between 2011 and 2013, is a powerful way to identify and provide support to all children, and to target professional development to teachers.
But the Education Institute NZEI Te Riu Roa says the Government has wasted millions of dollars producing data that tells schools what they already know.
President Judith Nowotarski says teachers have always identified the children that are struggling with their learning through assessment and their own professional knowledge, and they need action from government rather than a continued obsession with data.
She says given the unreliability of the data, the main conclusion that can be drawn is that there was a strong correlation between a child's socio-economic status and their educational achievement.
The Green Party says parents will be none the wiser about their child’s progress because the data is neither national nor standard.
New Zealand First says the Education Ministry’s admission earlier this year that it had adjusted marks downwards because of flaws in the writing test means the data is completely useless.
Education spokesperson Tracey Martin says Ms Parata is claiming the data shows an improvement in Māori and Pasifika results, without revealing that their performance was already rising under successful programmes such as Te Kotahitanga, which has now been scrapped.
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