August 21, 2017
National Standards failed experiment
The New Zealand Principals' Federation says the national standards experiment has been going on long enough for schools to know repeated testing isn't the way to lift student achievement.
President Whetu Cormick says the fears the profession voiced when the policy was introduced seven years ago have come to pass, with a narrower range of subjects being taught as schools concentrate on trying to raise literacy and numeracy levels.
He says former education minister Hekia Parata championed the policy as a way to bring the bulk of Maori students up to their peers, but that hasn't worked.
What has worked to improve standards are the Maori Achievement Collaboratives which now involve about 160 schools.
"What that is about is a group of principals coming together to share what they think and what they do to engage with young Maori, to engage with whanau, to transform their school communities and school cultures so whanau are engaged and if whanau are engaged, tamariki feel safe to be who they are, and that is as Maori," Mr Cormick says.
While the federation is saying time's up, current Minister Nikki Kaye is instead setting new and unachievable targets for National Standards.
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