Division over charter schools

From next year New Zealand students are likely to be offered a new form of schooling.

But opponents warn Kiwi kids are set to become guinea pigs in a Government-backed education experiment.

With legislation allowing charter schools expected to pass, parents could be enrolling their children in "partnership" institutions for the 2014 school year.

Claims and counter claims about their merit have muddied the water for parents and sparked divisive arguments among education sector leaders.

Act leader John Banks, architect of the new schools' initiative, says they will help raise educational under-achievement among young New Zealanders, which has plagued the state education system.

However, education groups, opposition parties and leading academics dispute this, and say the partnership school model could exacerbate existing inequalities among children.

To the horror of teaching unions, the new model would allow unregistered teachers to front classrooms with no requirement for them to follow the national curriculum. Opponents say this raises serious questions about the charter school model and likely educational outcomes for pupils.

Act - in partnership with the National Government - previously indicated disadvantaged areas in South Auckland and Christchurch would be first to trial partnership schools.

In some of South Auckland's poorest areas, such as Mangere, Otahuhu and Otara, local high schools are rated decile one.

In a Cabinet paper proposing the partnership school model, Mr Banks stated: "There is an emerging body of longitudinal research from overseas that shows well-run, well-led charter schools can successfully lift achievement for learners from minority groups and low socio-economic backgrounds."

However, the New Zealand Educational Institute, Post Primary Teachers' Association, Secondary Principals' Association and a Massey University education research group remain unconvinced.

The Labour and Green parties are also questioning advertised successes in overseas equivalents of partnership schools - which exist in several Western countries including the United Kingdom, United States and Sweden.

But political parties and educational experts agree that a significant level of students from minority groups are failing in New Zealand schools.

"We know that many Maori and Pasifika, learners from low socio-economic backgrounds, and learners with special education needs are not getting the qualifications and skills they need to succeed in the workforce and in life," Mr Banks' wrote.

Secondary school statistics show 87 per cent of year 12 Pakeha students who sat NCEA Level 2 passed in 2011.

Equivalent figures for Maori and Pacific students show only 74 per cent and 64 per cent, respectively, were successful.

The National Government is aiming to have 85 per cent of all 18 year olds leaving school with NCEA level 2 or an equivalent qualification by 2017.

"The current figure is around 68 per cent, so achieving the target will be very tough," Mr Key said last year.

According to the Education Amendment Bill, which had its second reading in Parliament last week , "sponsor" organisations will be allowed to set up and run partnership schools.

These organisations, which require approval from the Education Minister, will receive government funding on a per-student basis under a fixed-term contract - much like a privately-run prison.

While they will not be compelled to follow the national teaching curriculum, partnership schools will be required to demonstrate how well students are performing against educational achievement standards.

Currently, state schools already operate under a charter document model.

As required by the Education Act, a school board of trustees states in the school charter its "mission, aims, objectives, directions and targets that will give effect to the Government's national education guidelines".

A school's performance is measured against these charter document statements. Periodic reviews by the Education Review Office also scrutinise school performance.

The watchdog will still monitor performance standards in charter schools.

Proponents of partnership schools say curriculum flexibility afforded under the new model will better cater to the country's most vulnerable learners.

Pacific community leader John Kotoisuva, who heads one of 35 organisations applying to become a partnership school, says shortfalls in "mainstream" schooling could be remedied under the new system.

The founder of the C-Me Mentoring Trust, which runs a trade training programme for secondary students in South Auckland, wants to extend its methods as a partnership school for years 11-13.

"For those who are engaging and doing well in the mainstream, fantastic - go for it," he told the New Zealand Herald this month.

"But it's our [Pacific] children who haven't got jobs and are sitting at home. The thing that's missing with these young people is purpose."

Partnership schools will remove "all that bureaucratic stuff to make education more relevant to life after secondary school", Mr Kotoisuva says.

Distinguished professor of teacher education John O'Neill, who is part of Massey University's partnership schools research group, says Mr Kotoisuva's programme is a fantastic model.

"But you don't need a charter school to be able to do it.

"There's nothing new that can be offered by these groups that can't already be done within the state system."

Provisions for special character schools, which are comparable to some proposed partnership schools, already exist under current legislation, Professor O'Neill says.

"We actually have very few of them which would suggest that most parents are either already happy with the local range of offerings or they're not prepared to make the effort to move."

One aspect of the partnership school model which is likely to prove attractive to private agencies is the promise of government funding, he says.

However, funding can only be secured if partnership schools meet achievement standards.

Findings from Massey University's Education Policy Response Group - which researched case studies from Sweden, the UK and US - warn of ramifications stemming from a narrow standards-based focus.

Professor O'Neill, who is a member of the 12-strong expert group, says the findings indicated the learning environment in foreign partnership schools became "competitive" and "authoritarian".

Overseas partnership schools are designed to offer different education options "sporting academies, arts and drama" - while still being accountable to prescribed educational standards.

"[However] the families who apply to those schools and get through the gates tend to be more ambitious or persistent families.

"Those aren't the ones who are in most need of support," he said.

He also warns that students with extreme behavioural challenges, very severe special educational needs and those who are disengaged, are often left out.

According to proposed legislation, all partnership schools are required to accept students who apply for entry.

If schools are oversubscribed, siblings of students and the children of teaching staff take preference.

Following this, students are selected on a ballot basis - the same system currently operating in New Zealand state schools.

Earlier this month, the Labour Party tabled a series of amendments to the partnership school legislation in a last-ditch attempt to make changes.

These included an attempt to ensure charter schools were not exempt from employing registered teachers.

The New Zealand Educational Institute, which represents primary school teachers, warns parents to approach partnership schools with caution.

"If you've made this choice to send your child to a charter school, be very aware of what the charter school is purported to provide," NZEI's head of Maori policy Laures Park says.

"They do not have to have trained and registered teachers - you could have [an unqualified] parent who will be teaching your child."

Parents of struggling students should be extra wary, she warns.

"Charter schools are geared towards success - they have to be as their funding is reliant on it.

"If your child is a failing child. taking them to a charter school is not going to be an option that will be good for them."