Nothing standard

10 June, 2013

Nothing standard

Four years after their introduction, the National Standards judgements are still of little use for comparing schools.

Although primary and intermediate schools are required to report whether their children are ‘above’, ‘at’, ‘below’ or ‘well below’ standards set in reading, writing and mathematics, the ways in which children are assessed, and the raw data reported, makes comparing schools a pointless exercise.

Professor Martin Thrupp from the University of Waikato’s Faculty of Education leads the
NZEI-funded Research, Analysis and Insight into National Standards (RAINS) project and the latest report shows that while the Government is preparing to release the next round of National Standards statistics in a more standardised format - making comparisons seem easier - the data provided by schools is so variable that meaningful comparisons are impossible.

He says there are many version of how teachers assess children against the National Standards – which were introduced to primary and intermediate schools in 2009 - and in how schools interpret and report the data to the Ministry of Education.

“Teachers have a multitude of ways of assessing kids,” he says, “with both obvious and more subtle differences. They are all trying to find ways to work through it, but the schools are coming off diverse starting points and local contexts.”

Also, the way schools report the data is widely different, with one school simply refusing to put any children in the ‘well below’ category.

“They have now been told by the Ministry they have to,” he says.

He says within schools the data may provide an indication of progress, but that was not the case between schools.

“For individual schools, it can mean something but when you are comparing between schools it is problematic.”

There was also little to stop schools ‘gaming’ the system, he says.

Much of the criticism from schools had been the poor professional development offered to teachers before the introduction of National Standards, Prof Thrupp says.

“Schools are universally damning of the initial professional development,” he says.

“It’s quite different from NCEA, that had a lot more time and professional development.”

The RAINS project is about how the culture of schools may be changing due to National Standards and there are many other aspects still to be reported. Professor Thrupp says data from children, parents and classroom teachers would all be reported in the project. However, he says there has been little interest shown from parents in finding out more about National Standards.

“So far the project reports have been quite broad brush, mainly discussing the views of Senior Leadership Teams, but they are saying there is not a lot of demand from parents. Schools are not being inundated by parents wanting to know about National Standards.”

The RAINS project has run for three years and involves case studies of six schools. The final report is due at the end of the year with the overall findings being presented at a Primary Education Conference in Wellington in January.

ENDS

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