Report shows further evidence of National Standards failure

Immediate Release
15 October 2013

Report shows further evidence of National Standards failure

Suggested changes to the reporting of National Standards by a Government advisory group show that the Government has been reduced to “spin” in order to fix the unfixable.

The National Standards Aggregate Results Advisory Group has come up with a range of suggestions to try to make National Standards more palatable to principals, teachers and parents.

The report has been released under the Official Information Act. It has suggested that the Government find and engage “champions” to try to get better acceptance of National Standards and that they only report on them every second year.

NZEI Past President Ian Leckie says this shows, once again, that National Standards do not work and should be scrapped.

“This shows the level of desperation that there is in an attempt to fix an unworkable, failing policy.

“National Standards have been a dismal failure and the Government needs to get rid of them now instead of trying to manipulate teachers and parents in order to make them more palatable.

“We’re about to see further damaging consequences of National Standards in the form of league tables which will do nothing to help students.

“All they will do is perpetrate misleading perceptions about schools and students and lead to increasing inequity in our school system.

“There are better and fairer ways to assess student achievement and it’s time the Government stopped backing a failed policy and instead looked to improve success for all students.”

ENDS

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