Latest from BTAC on National Standards

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.

If you haven't already done so, the Boards Taking Action Coalition encourages you to join these schools and to inform us about the position your Board is taking.

The nub of our concern about the Standards has once again been made clear by two recent Ministry of Education communications.

The Ministry's advice in the Gazette of 28 March for students who start school at different points of the year is to 'report in relation to two sets of standards or choose the standard that applies'. How is the application of two sets of standards for the same year group, a 'National Standard'?

Further confusion exists in the National Standards posters that arrived in schools over the past two weeks. The reading standard recorded on the poster marks the standard in Years 1-3 respectively as 'independent' at Green, Turquoise and Gold. This is a different standard to the one published in the National Standards books that states that the standard is 'working at' Green, Turquoise and Gold. What is the standard: is it independent at Green, Turquoise or Gold, or instructional?

It appears these Standards are being made up on the hoof.

The National Standards books state the Year 5 reading standard means students are meeting the reading demands of NZC as they 'work towards' level 3. The new posters say that in order to meet the reading demands of NZC, students should be 'at early level 3'. Confused?

There is further worrying news for these Standards.

The recently published ERO report on working with National Standards finds 63% of schools surveyed unprepared to work with the Standards or having only some preparation underway. This corresponds with a recent  Boards Taking Action Survey undertaken by NZPF in which 56% of all schools that responded indicated they would either not include National Standards in their 2011 charter (29.7%) or would comply only in a minimal sense (26.4%).

This means that anywhere from 350 to 650 schools intend to defy the Ministry's expectation and instead set targets using existing and reliable achievement data.

It was interesting to note the $9.677 million targeted in last week's Budget to 'frameworks to develop consistency in teacher judgements'. This is a clear indication that the Ministry agrees there are serious issues with the reliability of these Standards. It is a shame to see good money poured into the National Standards blancmange. The resources should instead go to where we know they are needed most: targeted to the children we already know are at risk.

It is the view of the Boards Taking Action Coalition that target setting with these Standards is unsafe. Any data publicly available from these Standards in 2012 will in effect be 'invalid', and certainly not a sound basis for school league tables. Setting targets against trusted and reliable data and having clear school achievement expectations is what is appropriate and defensible.

BTAC aspires to a much better deal for our children, our schools and our education system.

As we build towards 1 July, please remember that it is important to inform the Boards Taking Action Coalition (BTAC) that you intend to submit your charter without Standards targets. BTAC is best positioned to litigate this contentious policy going forward if we have strong collective action.

If you haven't done so already, please communicate your Board's position to me (southwelly@gmail.com) before 1 July. In addition, if you have submitted your charter without standards targets already and you haven't informed BTAC then please do let us know.