High deciles don't always translate to academic success

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High deciles don't always translate to academic success

3News NZ

By 3 News online staff

Prime Minister John Key says parents are desperate for more information about our schools, but talk of introducing school league tables has been slated by critics - who say the move wouldn't help schools, parents or students.

Metro Magazine has just released its annual analysis of Auckland secondary school performances and the results may surprise.

A decile one school topped the magazine’s list, and the magazine’s editor Simon Wilson says there is a good reason for this.

“We measured our schools within each decile group […] you have to acknowledge that the higher the decile, the more likely it is that kids are going to do well, and the reason isn’t necessarily the school,” he told Firstline this morning.

Mr Wilson says this is usually because higher decile schools have children from wealthier backgrounds – who traditionally perform better at school.

Mr Wilson says catholic schools generally perform well, a stark contrast to a generation ago when they were often at the bottom of performance standards.

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Comments

30/06/2012 10:50:38 p.m.

S wrote:

High deciles means less funding to these schools by the Govt which is discrimination, the Govt should fund all public schools equally.

25/06/2012 5:15:33 p.m.

Mike wrote:

If Labour/Green funded say Adams for shotput they would claim that since she has ability, she doesn't need any funding! Our whole system is skewed for the no-achievers. Take Fonterra, the best and biggest business in NZ - and no Government funding! Even Fonterra with its 10500 farmers, the average income they have over the last say 25 years makes them some of the poorest and hardest working in NZ - but the left would see Fontera destroyed out of thier 'kill the golden goose' philosophy.

Dairying isn't easy, and even with higher costs locally here in NZ they have turned the problem around. They have basically gone for 'Large Class Sizes' and have over 300 herd sizes when the EU average is under 30.

If class size is so much better, that difference must be quanitifiable. How much better is a class size of 20 vs say 35 I went to school with? 4th form, my class size was actually 39. The school was under fundered with the labour government of the time and 4 teachers short, so the higher achievers had to make-do with larger classes. Teachers wont give this information for the public to know as any accountability to them may be bad, and informed parents, we just can not have that!

Its always the achievers, the wealthy, having to bail out the under achievers. What do you call taxation and welfare if not this?

GST is the fairest tax we have, where everyone pays the same %. From the poorest to the wealthiest, all the same %. But even there, a wealthy person spending 1 million will pay $150,000 in GST while someone spending nothing will pay no tax. So even with GST, the so-called wealthy are supporting more of the tax burden. The left claims some magical wealthy that doesn't exist will magically provide for everything - like it does in Greece ... and they would have us follow Greece with excess social spending to the cost of all NZ.

25/06/2012 1:48:15 p.m.

vicki wrote:

we discriminate against the wealthy.....really thats a good one.

25/06/2012 1:47:19 p.m.

Mike wrote:

Labour/Greens insist funding equates education, and the lowest decile gets the most funding per student, so by those rules we should see the best education amoung low decile!

The problem is not funding, its personel attitude. Higher decile parents tend to value education, and those values are passed on to their children. Often the higher decile schools survive on less funding as they aren't getting it from the parents, and they aren't getting it from government, and they still outperform lower decile schools? Why?

Well the teachers will tell you that we mustn't identify what works well and why so parents can evaluate if their school is the best for their child.

It would be like buying petrol from the service station, but your not allowed any accountability, your not allowed to know whats in the fuel, what its quality is, or even its price!

A nation league table is like having a quality standard for petrol and this available to the consumer, and a sign out the front with the price. Its not major, but any accountability the unions see as threatening. Teachers should care about education, but they are more ready to strike than care about education or students and their families.

25/06/2012 12:03:05 p.m.

S wrote:

I always thought high decile means so called higher income areas with less funding for the school which is discrimination - all schools should be treated the same if they get Govt funding.