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Special Education Review
The government has announced a review of special education. We encourage parents and teachers to have their voices heard.
QPEC has a long-standing interest and involvement in special edcuation and we will be making a submission to address what we see as systemic problems with funding and too many children falling through the cracks.
The deadline for submissions is 19 March 2010 and more information is available through this link.
National Standards debate
The debate about the government National standards is heating up. The government seems determined to ram through changes which are alarming schools, principals, teacher organisations and educational academics. Here is a selection of material which gives the lie to government's claims:
QPEC National Chair Liz Gordon released this statement on Wednesday February 3rd in response to the government spending $200,000 to promote national standards:
Taxpayer’s money will spread disinformation to... taxpayers
The National Chairperson of QPEC, Dr Liz Gordon, said that John Key has been misled by his Minister and officials into spending taxpayers’ money to spread incorrect information about the findings of an Education Review Office (ERO) report.
“I am not excited about having a Prime Minister that repeats the untrue statements of others. A few moments checking the report would reveal the truth, and he should have checked”.
Liz Gordon says that John Key is trying to convince parents that National Standards are worth the time and effort being put into them. But, she says “he has had to resort to disinformation to make the case”.
QPEC Vice President, Emeritus Professor Ivan Snook, undertook a detailed analysis of the ERO report on ‘reading and writing in Years 1 and 2’ at the end of 2009. Snook’s work covered all the claims made at the time by the Minister, and now repeated by the Prime Minister.
Key stated that “two thirds of principals and senior managers were not properly managing assessment”. If true, this would be a damning claim. But the ERO report is about the first two years only, and schools have always seen these as essentially classroom focused years, where the teacher, often with smaller classes, has the opportunity to get to know and manage children’s learning intimately, giving immediate feedback and invoking remedial techniques at will. In short, top down management of assessment in beginning classrooms is often not judged appropriate in schools. Snook quotes the ERO report which stated principals “trusted their junior school teachers or leaders who knew the students well.” Hardly an indictment on schools!
Key goes on to state that “30 percent of teachers were not doing a good job of teaching reading and writing”. ERO rated teachers (subjectively – no explicit tests were used) as High (26%), Good (43%), Adequate (21%) or Limited (10%) on the quality of their teaching of reading. The 30% covers both ‘adequate’ and ‘limited’ categories. In his analysis, Ivan Snook notes:
But surely, if the teaching is “adequate” it is “adequate” (not excellent or outstanding but adequate) and a more honest reporting would place the unsatisfactory teachers at 10% rather than 31%.
The third claim that Key makes is that “many principals aren’t adequately sharing their school’s achievement information with their communities”. Snook comments:
What the ERO review found was “In some schools that were working with a cluster of other schools, a professional development facilitator had collected, or assisted with data analysis. However, some teachers and leaders ignored this information or did not share it with their school community.” (p 38).
Liz Gordon said that “Key was reported as saying that national standards would identify poor performers and demand more from them. The Minister of Education has consistently refused to explain how this will happen. In a press release just yesterday, she said ‘Children who are slipping behind will be identified so teachers and parents can help them improve before it’s too late.’ What’s new in that?
“QPEC thinks the $200,000 disinformation money should be spent on a high quality, detailed study of what needs to be done to improve the literacy of the bottom 20 percent of learners. All educators would support such a study.
Assessment expert and Co-director of the Educational Assessment Research Unit at the University of Otago, Lester Flockton, has examined the government's claims and measured them against the reality of national standards.
Read the government spin here.
Lester has produced this letter to parents:
Dear Parents, Students and Teachers
National Standards: there’s more to this than meets the eye!
I fully support the positions of respected educational organisations, experts and leaders throughout our country who endorse quality teaching, high expectations, and standards of achievement appropriate to the individual student. I also share with those organisations and experts my deep concern and strong opposition to the National Standards regime that the Minister of Education wants to impose year by year on every primary and intermediate child - from five year-olds onwards.
Claims that National Standards will benefit all children, parents and teachers sound good, but are far from true and quite misleading. There is huge and compelling evidence from around the world that warns of the harm that National Standards can do to the quality of children’s schooling. Considerable international experience (e.g. USA, England) provestheir outright failure to “fix” underachievement or improve learning.
Parents want to be confident that their school is doing its best for their children, and that it is a good school. Most parents want to know how well their children are doing at school – where they are succeeding, where they need to improve, and what they can do to help their children’s learning. I agree with and work to these expectations. However, National Standards and reporting as designed by the Ministry of Education, can only give very narrow and even misleading answers.
Because of the potential flaws and harm that can be done by the systems the Minister of Education is pushing onto our schools and children, consideration is being given to conditions that will have to be met before agreeing to try National Standards. It is fair to expect a fully independent, Government funded evaluation into whether National Standards do what is claimed. We need to be convinced that National Standards do not undermine a well-rounded and modern education for our children. We also need to be convinced that the reporting of National Standards will not label or harm our children, our schools and our communities. Any full implementation of national standards would depend on positive evidence from a thorough investigation.
The public has a right to know the truth of the matter. Education leaders are disturbed that the Minister of Education fails to take notice of sound and expert advice about flaws in this Government policy despite numerous attempts to get her to understand the implications of her policy. Many are also specially worried about the lasting damage National Standards could do to a well-rounded education for our young people, and the quality of teaching and schooling in New Zealand. These are held in very high regard around the world.
Thank you for taking the time to think about what National Standards could do to our children and schools. Any change needs to be proven to be good change – for our children. There is absolutely no proof that National Standards will work. There is a lot of well-justified doubt, and continuing misleading statements from the Minister of Education who takes comfort from the general public’s lack of sufficient insights into what National Standards mean and could do. It is costing the tax payer millions of dollars at the expense of other important provisions. The fact sheet with this letter summarises the truth of the matter. Your support is appreciated.
The teachers union NZEI is conducting a national bus tour to raise awareness with parents. See what is happening at this link:
http://www.handsupforlearning.org.nz/
QPEC National Vice Chair John Minto has blogged about it:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/blogs/frontline/3284466/Preparing-for-baked-bean-education
Associate Education Minister and Maori Party Co-leader Pita Sharples has grave concerns:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/politics/3282549/Sharples-Grave-fears-about-national-standards
QPEC 2010 AGM - Advance Warning
QPEC's 2010 AGM will be held in Auckland on Saturday April 10th at the St Columba Centre, Vermont Street, Ponsonby. More details will follow. Put the date in your diary now. All welcome.
QPEC's Liz Gordon challenges Destiny Church
Campbell Live, Friday 30th October 2009
http://www.3news.co.nz/Schools-of-the-Destiny-Church/tabid/367/articleID/127594/cat/221/Default.aspx
Literate but ignorant? Our children’s future, part II.
Press release 23 October 2009 – UPDATED FROM YESTERDAY’S RELEASE
Yesterday, QPEC chair Liz Gordon put out a release on behalf of QPEC discussing the government’s decision to focus on literacy and numeracy standards, at the same time withdrawing teacher support for science, languages, the arts, health and technology. |
