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NZEI begins independent assessment of National Standards

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Fri, 11 Mar 2011 3:03p.m.

(file pic)

(file pic)

A teacher union is funding independent research into the impact of the new National Standards in schools.

The Government introduced the standards - benchmarks in reading, writing and maths - this year against strong opposition from the unions.

It says parents need clear information about how their children are performing but unions say the standards should have been trialled and are difficult to implement.

The primary teachers' union, NZEI, said today it was funding research which would be part of a three-year project involving some of the world's leading educational researchers.

It would focus on the way six diverse primary and intermediate schools were approaching National Standards and the impact they were having on those schools and their students, NZEI president Ian Leckie said.

"Given the absence of a trial of National Standards and the deep concerns the profession and school communities have, NZEI has decided to fund this research in a bid to get robust evidence about the impact of National Standards on teaching and learning," he said.

The project is being run through the Wilf Malcolm Institute for Educational Research at the University of Waikato and is headed by Prof Martin Thrupp.

NZPA

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Comments

22 Mar 2011 09:47p.m.

Sophie Stevenson wrote:

Natioal Standards is codswallop, let child poverty knock NS off its perch for poor performance in schools.

15 Mar 2011 01:07p.m.

Helen wrote:

Its not blinkered thinking Doug is realistic thinking.

A survey was carried out by an independent overseas agency looking at how well school kids were doing.

Under labour our kids were rated third best in the developed world.

National changed that with the introduction of National standards, they have designed a system that will make many children fail simply because of the way it is setup.

Why change a system that had us rated as third best in the world... I cant see how telling kids they are failing to meet expectations on a near religious basis is going to do anything but break their spirits.

Its like National fanatics rooting for the three strikes policy, I had a good laugh when I found out that this policy was backed by an ACT party member with multiple convictions and that National were only too happy to fall in line with support for policies designed by a criminal.

14 Mar 2011 09:39a.m.

Doug wrote:

Helen: Labour good National bad you have to get past your blinkered thinking.

13 Mar 2011 02:56p.m.

Helen wrote:

I think it scares National party supporters to understand that under Labour our school kids were rated thrid best in the world.

These new National standards wont improve that at all, National standards are designed to create a whole lot of failures.

you keep telling a child that they are failing to meet expectations and soon enough they give up trying to meet those expectations and become failures.

New Zealanders have become so thick, the National party has designed a system that will create more failures than ever before.

We all know about the psychology involved in telling someone over and over again that they are failures.

Soon enough they believe it and strive to make the statement true.

National standards are stupid, pointless and meaningless.

Anyone agreeing with them is a complete idiot.

12 Mar 2011 12:09p.m.

Oliver wrote:

Given that Mar­tin Thrupp has already actively campaigned against National Standards, I think it is quite safe to assume that this report is not going to be at all independent, and can be ignored.

12 Mar 2011 09:44a.m.

Brent wrote:

Whaleoil has Martin Thrupp links to protests and ante standard websites, Come on TV3 there's a story in your last paragraph

12 Mar 2011 07:34a.m.

bc wrote:

If Martin Thrupp is independant, then Gaddafi is moderate.

11 Mar 2011 09:53p.m.

Doug wrote:

"Independent" I can see a Tui Billboard in the making.

11 Mar 2011 04:08p.m.

Jill wrote:

National Standards is a ridiculous piece of legislation, just before the National standards were introduced there was a survey of Economically developed countries done to see which countries had the top students.

New Zealand was ranked third.

So it will be interesting to see how much damage these national standards do to the kids of New Zealand.

When a country is ranked third in the world for achievement, what was the point of useless legislation such as this? other than political grandstanding without a decent platform to base it on.