Standards 'not telling whole story'

Progress is more important than achievement.

This is what a handful of Western Bay principals believe after schools handed out end-of-year student report cards.

On the report cards, which are unique to each school, student achievement for reading, writing and numeracy is plotted on a graph against the national standard. This will show whether a child is below, at or above the national line.

But even if a child did not achieve, parents should not be too concerned, principals say.

Principal Graeme Lind of Greenpark School believed student progress was a better indicator of student success rather than whether or not they were above or below the average grade.

"You've got to look at the progress made between the end of last year and the end of this year. Or even the progress made from the mid-year," he said.

"National standard reporting is a bit ambiguous, there are two anomalies. The first concerns the mid-year report when children often are not at the national standard yet. It's like driving to Auckland and you reach Waihi. You're well on your way but you're not there yet.

"That's one of the failings [of National Standards], that they don't have a mid-point," he said.

The second issue related to reporting student achievement in Year cohorts rather than age.

"When it comes to the end of the year, there can be eight months' variance between when the kids have their birthdays and the reporting is in Year cohorts not age so they might be achieving at their age level but not their year."

Because of these anomalies, parents should be aware of National Standards reporting, he said.

Dave Bell, president of the Western Bay Principals Association and principal of Bellevue School, said parents of students who were just below the standard should not be overly concerned.

"The Ministry [of Education] have said they're aspirational and I think parents need to keep this in mind when they see where their child is placed."

On the Bay of Plenty Times Facebook page, Terry Jones said he thought it was fair to compare the abilities of children.

"Yes, kids need competition, it helps with development. If a child is told that they are academically exceptional all the time when in fact they are not, when they get in the real world it will be a nasty shock."

Tauranga's Sharon Rahman said she liked the National Standards. "It gives a guide where kids should be and where our kids are."

But Karleigh-Jayne, of Tauranga, said National Standards didn't take into account the diversity of cultures and abilities in New Zealand."

Mr Bell said if students were just below the standard they should still celebrate their success.

"Parents need to look at how far they've come and the most important thing is to celebrate their progress."

Mr Bell said each school could choose how it reported National Standards but most schools in his area chose to report graphs.

"Schools across the cluster do moderation checks to make sure they're done right through a process called other teacher judgement."

Mr Bell said it was "too early to tell" whether National Standards were effective.