NATIONAL STANDARDS AND WAIKANAE SCHOOL

Position as at 1 July 2011

 

At the Waikanae School Board of Trustees meeting held on Tuesday 21 June 2011 the Board reaffirmed its opposition to aspects of the National Standards and resolved to continue to defer the setting of achievement targets based on National Standards.  It is important to note that we will continue to implement the Standards into our reporting mechanisms to parents. 

Primarily this action is being taken by the Board because of our concerns around one aspect of the National Standards, this being Section 2.C.1 of the National Administrative Guidelines. 

 

National Administrative Guideline 2.C.1

As Waikanae School has students enrolled in Years 1-8, the board of trustees, with the principal and teaching staff, is required to use National Standards to….: report in the board's annual report on the numbers and proportions of students at, above, below or well below the standards, including by Māori, Pasifika and by gender (where this does not breach an individual's privacy). 

 

The Board has two issues.  Firstly, the moderation of the Overall Teacher Judgements and secondly, the likely effects of League Tables on our students and the wider NZ Education System.

 

Moderation of OTJs

In order to fulfil the National Administration Guideline 2.C.1 teachers must make and schools must collect Overall Teacher Judgements for every student on three learning areas (Reading, Writing and Maths).  Despite the very best efforts of every teacher in every school in New Zealand OTJs will always be a teacher's judgement made within the context of their own learning community and experience as a teacher.  Although OTJs are based on the effective use of assessment tools, benchmarked work samples, anecdotal notes, teacher observations and teacher knowledge, they are in the end a judgement by each individual teacher. 

It has become very clear after 18 months of implementing National Standards at Waikanae School that the OTJs are proving to be a useful tool for reporting individual student achievement and progress to parents.  We are using them as learning progressions and are reporting against them to our parents, Board and wider community. 

What is missing is any form of district, regional or national moderation.  We have worked hard at developing a system of moderation within our school and we believe it works well.  A lack of moderation to ensure consistency between schools, however, means that our interpretation of the National Standards is unique to us.  In effect there is no one National Standard but as many different interpretations as there are schools in the country.  While OTJs are useful within each school community, this lack of wider moderation will mean that they will lose all relevance once removed from our school setting.

 

League Tables

The National Guideline 2.C.1 will enable the Ministry and the media to construct League Tables of data which will rank schools according to OTJ student achievement data.  We firmly believe that a high stakes league table environment such as the one that will be created with the implementation of the current policy will become a negative driver on our education system.  In essence the position of a school on the League Table will be the focus rather than the needs of the individual child and the quality of information given to parents.  This change of focus will throw up all sorts of unintended consequences which will not aid us in achieving the government's stated aim of raising student achievement.  The policy enables and encourages the MoE and media to create League Tables, which not only have the potential to derail our education system but also are based on data which is inherently subjective due to a lack of wider moderation.

 

Waikanae School Remains Committed to High Quality Reporting

Waikanae School has taken a 'warts and all' approach to the reporting of student achievement for many years. We have reported individual student achievement against the National Curriculum Levels (National Standard Equivalents) since 1999 and against National Norms since 2009.  In addition we have provided aggregated school wide achievement data on the school website since 2005. 

The Board believes the National Standards are useful and workable as long as they remain within the local school environment.  This is the reason for the Board's decision to defer the setting of achievement targets based on National Standards while continuing to implement the Standards into our reporting mechanisms to parents.  

It is important to note that the Board is happy to meet with parents to discuss and explain our stance, answer questions and receive feedback about any National Standards related issue.  If you would like the Board to organise a meeting please RSVP via the link on the school website or click here.  If there is sufficient interest the BoT will organise a meeting in early August. 

As always the school remains committed to giving the very best information to parents on both individual and school wide achievement.

 

Yours sincerely 

 

Elizabeth Couchman                                                               Bevan Campbell

Chairperson                                                                           Principal

Waikanae School Board of Trustees                                      Waikanae School