Wednesday, February 8, 2012 at 03:51PM What's the bet the Treasury official who wrote the report saying class size doesn't matter hasn't spent a lot of time inside a classroom lately. My son had a brilliant teacher in year 3 - but she didn't last. Class size was a problem.
Thursday, February 2, 2012 at 04:06PM Hard not to despair at the breathless reporting by the MSM of the govt’s education reforms.
John Armstrong in the NZ Herald was at it yesterday, repeating the spin that charter schools will increase competition between schools and lift student achievement.
Let's be clear: no education system in the world has lifted student achievement by way of charter schools. All systems that have them perform worse than ours and are flat-lining or in decline. Charter schools are about the privatisation of public education - that is the main driver.
New Zealand's success is due in large part to the system’s “learning how to learn” focus. We don’t rote learn, and until last year we didn’t rote test.
Tuesday, November 29, 2011 at 06:08PM In National’s education policy, I was taken aback by how Christchurch schools are getting nothing but bumf. We should all get in behind calls for extra support for the schools of that stricken area.
And all the rest of the document is bumf, except for the section headed ‘Strengthen accountability and performance measurement’.
And therein lies the battleground for the next few years.
Wednesday, November 23, 2011 at 06:58PM As predicted, the National Party announced its education policies undercover of noise in the last days of the election campaign.
Sunday, November 6, 2011 at 06:59PM Should we read anything in to it that the education video on the National Party's homepage doesn't mention National Standards, and that the link to its National Standards policy on the same site is broken - http://www.national.org.nz/achievements.aspx#publicservices?
Sunday, November 6, 2011 at 03:44PM Interesting to hear John Key reported on RNZ's Insight programme on poverty in NZ as saying National Standards is one of the ways the National government is tackling child poverty.
Don't believe there is one bit of research available to support this assertion. All research I've seen in this area (child poverty in the context of standards-based ed reforms) suggests 'greater accountabilility' reforms only further entrench child poverty by stigmatising those who are poor and behind as failing, and thereby creating a self-fulfilling downward spiral.
Wednesday, September 7, 2011 at 08:09PM Just finished a long article about deaf education for the spring issue of EA, and the tragedy of those children with mild but multiple conditions, who still slip through the net (if you're severely deaf or autistic, etc, you get resources, but if you have multiple, mild conditions that still add up to severe learning needs - you're not eligible for a lot of the funding, although educators do work around this.)
Talked to a stack of people, including one guy, fantastic commitment to deaf education, but he'd bought the line that National Standards will pick up those kids who are still slipping through the cracks.
Tuesday, August 30, 2011 at 05:26PM Far-right blogger Cameron Slater (Whaleoil) has been at it again, exposing NZEI's huge conspiracy to - well - educate the children of New Zealand.
Cameron got hold of an email from Auckland principal Liz Horgan (and how did that happen, I wonder? two scenarios spring to mind straight off - some sort of hacking or an avenue that ran past the minister's office). In the email, Liz despairs about National Standards. Liz's school is a BTAC school - but Cameron breathlessly exclaims, she's also member of NZEI! and the email is copied into - believe it or not - other members of NZEI! And someone from NZCER too - heaven's above, the sky really is falling, it's a communist takeover!!!!!
Monday, August 8, 2011 at 10:53PM Over the weekend I was talking with an economist friend about the Commerce Commission's decision not to investigate the price of the milk.
He's a hell of a nice guy - generous, philanthropic, concerned - yet, when it comes to the price of milk, well that's another matter: the Commerce Commission made its decision within a certain framework - there are two supermarket chains, therefore there is competition in the market. It's expensive to make milk - it has to be transported and kept cold, there's spillage and spoilage.
Monday, August 1, 2011 at 09:43PM Rupert Murdoch may have taken a hit, but there's clearly still a long long way to go. An article republished in the Dominion Post last week stated that the orgins of Anders Breivik were at primary school.More to the point, it all began for him, according to the article, when he was forced to learn to knit.
Thursday, July 14, 2011 at 11:42PM Big day today - the School Is Cool competition closed - 2500 fantastic entries, 60,000 visitors to the website (www.schooliscool.org.nz/news) - and the current issue of EA went to the printer. There's one story that stands out.
Sunday, July 3, 2011 at 06:47PM Standardized Blanket Testing - A Moral Issue for Principals.
By Phil Cullen
I was motivated to write this after reading the efforts of Bruce Hammonds and Kelvin Smythe in Leading and Learning http://www.leading-learning.co.nz/ and http://www.networkonnet.co.nz/
Standardised blanket testing on a national scale in schools is a malady that has spread over a number of countries under different names.
Sunday, June 19, 2011 at 09:47PM There's something utterly heartbreaking about the death of Kings College student David Gaynor. But why does this tragedy strike so deep - because he was clearly such a fabulous young man? because I briefly met his parents 20 years ago? because I have a son rapidly approaching adolescence?
In her column in the NZ Herald, Deborah Hill Cone, said his death showed that - rich or poor - growing up is tough. But I think she misses the point.
Wednesday, June 1, 2011 at 06:51PM The site for the competition is now up - www.schooliscool.org.nz. It's early days, but there are a few gorgeous entries up already.
At the same time, here at the NZEI comms team we're holding our breath. Will this site fly? Are we asking too much from already too busy teachers? Will the right-wing bloggers get hold of it and twist it into another anti-union, anti-teacher rant?
Tuesday, May 24, 2011 at 10:27PM Perry Rush
Spokesperson
Boards Taking Action Coalition
southwelly@gmail.com
We are fast approaching 1 July and already we have recorded a significant and growing group of schools (more than 350) committed to submitting charters without National Standards targets.
Wednesday, April 13, 2011 at 10:31PM The latest issue of EA goes to the printer today. The cover story is "Reading, writing, eating" - it looks at the remarkable extent to which schools are being supported by charities.
In the last year Kidscan has given 1.5m items of food to schools. And that's just the beginning. Schools are getting sound systems, AV gear, sports gear, transport, raincoats and shoes, and more - all from charities. Students can't begin to learn when they're hungry, and charities have become essential as a stepping stone to cross the cavernous divide that now separates what's on offer to students at high decile schools and how low decile schools must manage.
Monday, March 14, 2011 at 09:22PM From the Vodafone Warriors:
Young Kiwis are harnessing the power of the Vodafone Warriors at a grassroots level, boosting literacy levels and engaging children, inspired by their heroes, in the activity of reading for fun. For the fourth successive year, reading is top on the Warriors’ ‘cool list’ with the Konica Minolta League in Libraries initiative. The League in Libraries principle is that if the Vodafone Warriors say reading is cool, their fans will think so too.
Wednesday, February 16, 2011 at 03:19PM
Tuesday, February 15, 2011 at 04:46PM Two Us academics compare current schooling practices and reform efforts to the mechanistic industrial model and illustrate why this paradigm is no longer sufficient in this “flat world.” Schooling and school reform in the 21st century continue to be approached as if these are a flatworm capable replicating itself. We argue that a new paradigm is needed—one that builds on current knowledge and human resources, one that is created by those who work and live in a school or community—which we have called Indigenous Invention.
Sunday, February 13, 2011 at 10:13PM Rudolf Steiner celebrates the 150th anniversary of the founder's birth with a forum in Auckland.