Making the grade: Save our Schools report outlines problems and solutions for the New Zealand education system

Everything from the curriculum to teacher training and the NCEA system needs to be overhauled if we want to solve New Zealand’s “education crisis”, according to a new report publicly released today.

Save Our Schools: Solutions for New Zealand’s Education Crisis by New Zealand Initiative senior fellow Dr Michael Johnston outlines eight areas within the system that he believes need major changes in order to reverse the decline in student achievement and make our education system the best in the world again.

The report by the public policy think-tank and research organisation first suggests amending the Education Training Act to enshrine a focus on educational achievement.

It criticises the current curriculum, saying it is knowledge-poor, does not provide teachers with enough guidance and focuses on “key competencies” which are learned innately, rather than the teaching of academic knowledge.

Instead, Johnston suggests the curriculum should outline what is to be taught at each curriculum level, with guidance for teachers on the sequencing of learning; taking the emphasis away from key competencies; detailed progression for literacy and numeracy; and teaching mātauranga Māori and universal disciplines as a separate subject rather than integrating them into each area.

Johnston says NCEA does not provide an understanding of the subject as a whole because standards are selected, often by which is easiest to obtain, and are each assessed separately over the course of the year, meaning students are focused on the accumulation of credits.

Instead, he suggests one time-limited exam at the end of the year and one internal examination worked on over the course of the year for each subject, both of which would be graded by marking panels at the end of the year.

Initial teacher education is criticised for its focus on sociological aspects and lack of focus on the cognitive science behind learning. He also raises concerns that primary teachers are expected to become experts in every subject.

He believes teacher training and professional development should have a greater focus on knowledge of the human cognitive process and its implications for learning, and that specialisation should be included to improve teaching in each curriculum area.

In order to attract good teachers to the profession, Johnston argues performance-based pay should be introduced, rather than teachers working their way up the pay scale based solely on the number of years they have been teaching.

“Effective teachers should be recognised through higher remuneration and status, using an approach similar to the four-tier structure in Australia. Like that model, promotions should be made on the basis of evidence against professional standards.”

Criteria should include curriculum knowledge, knowledge of learning processes, the ability to design and administer courses of study, engagement with colleagues and school communities, and evidence that students are making appropriate progress, he said.

Promotions could be determined by committees comprising principals and senior teachers.

The report also suggests making a pathway for experts in other fields to enter teaching without spending a year in study, but rather training while working. It also called for schools to receive a one-line budget, enabling them to pay a premium to staff in curriculum areas that were difficult to recruit in and to be able to more easily hire international teachers.

It also called for more assessment data to ensure schools could be held accountable for student achievement and asked that the National Monitoring Study of Student Achievement be resourced to undertake a reliable sample study of achievement in reading, writing and mathematics every year, at every year level from Year 1 to Year 10 and for science from Year 4 on.

Johnston also argued the New Zealand Council for Education Research should be refocused on large-scale quantitative, generalisable research on teaching and learning, as well as piloting and reviewing all new Ministry of Education initiatives.

The study will be discussed in a public webinar which will be live-streamed by the Herald from 1pm today.