Over recent weeks the use of National Standards data in league tables has taken a considerable amount of media time. The Ministry of Education have always stated that they will not create league tables from National Standards data. Today's announcement by the Minister of Education that National Standards data will be published from September on the Education Counts website, was accompanied by the recommendation that parents use this site to assist them in choosing schools.
I, along with many of my colleagues in the teaching profession, have many concerns about National Standards data being used to compare schools. Some of the reasons for this include:
Complexity
We are not comparing simple data here such as sports results
or sales figures. This is complex data
impacted by many things:
- Home environment;
- Learning needs;
- Resources available;
- Quality of teaching etc.
Even grouping the data under decile headings is not an
accurate comparison of ‘like with like.’
We know that all Decile 10 schools are not created equal!
Flawed Data
We know that while the data created by National Standards is
useful within our own school, this data is neither National, nor Standard. The standards are ambiguous and open to
interpretation by each school. As yet,
there is no system in place for moderating between schools to ensure consistency
of these interpretations, meaning any comparison of schools will be flawed.
Focus on Final Outputs
rather than Progress
There is no ‘Standard’ for 5 year olds entering school, therefore
no means to measure the progress of students as they move through the school. This could unfairly misrepresent a school
making significant progress, as underperforming, and a school making minimal
progress, as high performing.
International Research
Both PISA and OECD reports show that countries that have introduced League Tables (or used data for high stakes purposes such as comparing schools) as part of nationwide education policy, have gone backwards in performance. New Zealand educators are concerned that current policies continue to follow and imitate the policies of those countries who are performing below us in international comparisons, rather than looking forward to the few countries that are ahead of us.
Potential to Narrow the Curriculum
There is growing concern that should National Standards gain importance and credibility as a means for measuring school success, the pressure to improve standings in the tables will result in ‘teaching to the test’ and areas of the curriculum other than Literacy and Mathematics will become marginalized.
Potential to reduce opportunities for More Able Students
There is growing concern that should National Standards gain importance and credibility as a means for measuring school success, the pressure to improve standings in the tables will result in more teacher time and resources being focused on target students, resulting in a lack of opportunities for those students who need and deserve enrichment and challenge.
Information related to the Minister's announcement today can be found at:
