National Standards 'confusing parents'

Western Bay Principals' Association president Dane Robertson says National Standards data can vary from school to school.

National Standards data released by the Ministry of Education is inconsistent and confuses parents, a local principal says.

The Ministry released its controversial National Standards data this week, which measures the achievement of primary-aged children at schools compared to national expectations for an age group.

All students are assessed on whether they are below, at or above the National Standards in reading, writing and maths.

The data for 2014 in the Bay of Plenty showed male students were below the national average of students performing at or above National Standards in all three areas, while Maori students were above the national average in all three fields.

Other results were a mixed bag.

Ian Leckie, New Zealand Institute of Education member and principal of Tahatai Coast School, said there was no consistency with the standards as they were hard to understand and interpret.

"Dodgy is a pretty good word from our point of view.

"Different schools interpret the standards in different ways.

"The whole thing about them being useful for teachers and parents is quite a misnomer. Parents find them difficult to understand."

The emphasis on the standards meant an emphasis on results, taking away from an emphasis on the whole child and the whole curriculum, Mr Leckie said.

"If we really wanted to make a difference, it's the funding we need. Give us the resources to make a difference and certainly schools will do that.

"We want to be able to spend our time focusing on literacy and numeracy, the standards are distracting us from doing that."

Dr Graham Stoop, head of student achievement at the Ministry of Education said National Standards data gave primary schools valuable information that provided a clearer picture of how their children were progressing, especially when used alongside other learning evidence.

That evidence helped teachers assess where a student was at in their learning and what their next learning steps should be, Dr Stoop said.

"Teachers' capability to use the National Standards to assess student progress and achievement will get better over time as they become more familiar with making judgments about a student's progress."

Dane Robertson, Western Bay Principals Association president, said National Standards data could vary from school to school.

"It's not national, it's school-wide. I think, if anything, it's narrowed the curriculum a little bit because schools have become so focused on looking at who's at, who's above and who's below and the pressure is on for that."

The National Standards data was more of a "ballpark figure" as it showed where the schools thought their students were at.

Otumoetai Primary School principal Geoff Opie said you could not have National Standards without nationalised testing.

"We don't have a national test so the standards we have are based on overall teacher judgment. It's going to come back to what's going on in an individual school based on where they think things are."