The New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) is concerned National Standards in schools could lead to poorer outcomes for special needs students, after the Ministry of Education advised their achievement information would be included in National Standards reporting.
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NZEI says parents should be concerned that schools won’t want special needs students - who are more likely to sit below the average for their age - “dragging down” their results.
Schools may exclude special needs children if the National Standards information is used to publish school league tables, the union says.
NZEI’s immediate past-President Frances Nelson says if the information is used to “publicly judge and compare” and reward high-achieving schools, “there is no doubt some schools will make a conscious decision to exclude special needs children”.
Privacy is also a concern, she says, as in smaller schools or those with a special needs unit, special needs children “will be easily identifiable in terms of National Standards reporting and any public league table which is drawn up”.
She says in the “haste to implement the standards” these issues haven’t been thoroughly considered.
3 News