National Standards in NZ Education - a teacher's response

[mikeMBW]

I'm a teacher in a New Zealand classroom and since the... introduction (that's putting it politely) of the standards in our school, the variety and depth of rich learning and teaching opportunities has faded into a distant memory. As teachers we are now EXPECTED to teach to a specific timetable each day and have little to no flexibility to take hold of the "teachable moment". I miss being able to truly teach my students! What's next? the strap, ink wells, grotty Education Dept textbooks?

[daddyslackful]

Formal and standardised assessment is trying, and failing, to measure our kids. This kind of out-dated approach is measuring the wrong thing. It frequently fails to accurately measure what it claims to be measuring. It continues to assess for a purpose that is more about tradition than relevance.

This failure of the assessment system itself is not immediately obvious and this failure is being wrongly attributed to our kids' performance as learners. Down with national standards..

[teachitnz]

@daddyslackful

Teachers assess really effectively and we are improving assessment techniques regularly. But assessment is not going to help the child who just misses out on Reading Recovery. The money should have been spent on programmes that will make a difference to improve the learning of some hard to motivate children.

Thanks for taking the time to view the message!

[daddyslackful]

@teachitnz in my experience, teachers are dedicated professionals who do their best to cope with ever changing ministry 'initiatives' that are poorly communicated to the community (and schools!). As usual, teachers have been left holding the baby by the bureaucrats. I was teaching at the time the NS spanner hit the works and we had a lot of puzzled and frustrated teachers at our staff meetings trying to figure out how to make NS work. Keep up the information campaign..

[teachitnz]

The more people who know about the effect this will have on teaching in NZ the better! Our professionalism is being questioned unfairly.

[madmacnz]

Strikes right to the heart of the issues about National Standards in NZ - very cleverly presented!