National standards ‘failing to help kids’

Only 16 per cent of teachers believe national standards have had a positive effect on their students’ achievement.

A New Zealand Council for Education Research survey also shows that, despite being implemented in 2010, half of teachers and 59 per cent of principals still do not feel they have had enough support and guidance in using the standards.

The research has revealed teachers are concerned the benchmarks offer little to children with additional learning needs, and that there could be negative effects for students constantly regarded as ‘‘below’’ or ‘‘well below’’ in the standards set in reading, writing and maths for children in years 1 to 8.

Many principals and teachers doubted the standards provided a reliable picture of student performance, but did use them for decision making at schools.

Forty-four per cent of principals supported the standards, up from 38 per cent in 2013.

‘‘What’s coming out loud and clear, from our point of view, is there needs to be further guidance and support for teachers, so they feel more confident’’, report author Linda Bonne said.

Teachers would prefer to focus on the progress students made, rather than worrying if they had reached the standard. Children with learning difficulties, in particular, who might consistently be below or well below the standards would be better to be judged on the progress they had made during the year, Bonne said.

Dave Appleyard, principal at Lower Hutt’s Rata St School, said having a national expectation was useful, but it was hard to ensure there was consistency in how students were being judged from school to school.

‘‘Within our network of schools in [the suburb of] Naenae there is some across-school moderation to make sure we’ve got consistency.’’

One downfall of the standards was that they didn’t always show the improvement a student had made over a year, he said.

NZEI president Louise Green said the survey dealt a huge blow to the credibility of national standards, and showed how dangerous it would be to use them as the basis of any future school funding system.

‘‘National standards have failed to achieve the two purposes they were set up for – lifting achievement, and giving parents better information about the progress of their children.’’

Ministry of Education head of early learning and achievement Carl Le Quesne said the report showed the standards were working as intended.

National standards were being used to set goals for teaching and learning, and helping focus on lifting achievement for students below the standard.

‘‘We have made good progress, but there is still work to do to raise achievement levels over time.’’

More students were achieving ‘‘at’’ or ‘‘above’’ the standards for maths and reading than ever before.

A tool had been designed to help schools achieve consistency in their judgments of students against the standards, which more than 500 schools were using.