Research into the Impact of National Standards in Schools

11th March 2011

The impact of the government’s controversial National Standards in schools is to be studied as part of a three year project involving some of the world’s leading educational researchers.

The ‘Research, Analysis and Insight into National Standards’ (RAINS) project is being funded by the education sector union NZEI Te Riu Roa and will be led by Professor Martin Thrupp from the Faculty of Education at the University of Waikato.

It will focus on the way six diverse primary and intermediate schools are approaching National Standards and the impact that is having on those schools and their students. It will involve talking to students, parents, teachers, principals and Board of Trustee members as well as detailed observations in schools and classrooms.

Professor Thrupp says detailed research is crucial because previous studies have shown that education policy is never simply ‘implemented’ in schools, and that ‘high stakes’ forms of assessment, such as National Standards, often have unintended effects.

He says a key question is “whether there are patterns common enough to characterise the National Standards as genuinely national or whether they are better characterised as local to schools.”

NZEI President Ian Leckie says “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.”

A group of leading academics from the UK, the USA and Australia has been recruited to provide advice to the RAINS project. A New Zealand-based group will also provide feedback and advice. The project is run through the Wilf Malcolm Institute for Educational Research at the University of Waikato.

ENDS

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