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National Standards: Stop with the Myths

February 2nd, 2010

I have spent a lot of time in schools and with parents and teachers since becoming an MP (and indeed beforehand). There is one thing I can say with certainty. I am yet to meet a parent or teacher who did not want the children they care for or teach to progress, succeed and fulfil their potential.

In that light what is disappointing to me in the debate about National Standards is that the National Party and its cheerleaders are trying to create the impression that schools and teachers have no idea how children are progressing and are somehow deliberately hiding this from parents.

Take this from Richard Long, former National Party Chief of Staff in the Dominion Post this morning.

I can’t help but feel sorry for Education Minister Anne Tolley as she valiantly battles away on this one. It would, after all, be easier to abandon the field to the teachers’ union, as previous governments have done, continuing to leave pupils and their parents in the dark over performance and standards.

What utter nonsense. The notion of “the field being abandoned to the teachers union” is reds under the beds stuff. In the last government Labour implemented ASttLE a world leading assessment system, along with massive investment in literacy and numeracy programmes and professional development. We wanted and still want parents and teachers to have quality information about how their children are progressing.

Further, pupils and parents are most certainly not “in the dark over performance and standards”. I am not sure if Richard Long has been near a school lately, but I have, and most every school has robust assessment and reporting practices. The schools I deal with are also all extremely open to parents talking with them regularly about their children’s progress, and working out how they can help with it.

Of course there are some schools that could do better- and much more importantly there are children who are not achieving their potential. The National Party is fond of quoting the statistic that 1 in 5 children leave school without the literacy and numeracy skills they need. That is a bad thing. But what teachers tells us is that we know who those children are from an early stage. Shouldn’t we be focusing on those children and improving their progress, than implementing an unproven blunt instrument such as national standards?

At the very least something that the National Party see as the most important issue in education deserves a trial period. National pushed this through under urgency to meet their 100 days of action programme. This meant it did not get the scruitiny it deserved then, and that has still not occured.

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Cutting off the helping hand for our newest Kiwis

September 8th, 2009

Yesterday I spoke to the Skilled Migrant class at Victoria University. In the room were a dozen or so people who had come to New Zealand as people with skills that we need- IT engineers, industrial scientists, business managers, HR specialists. They do this programme to help develop their communication skills and knowledge of New Zealand business practice. They get mentored by business people (volunteers through the Rotary Club of Wellington), do work placements and generally get ‘match fit’ for working in New Zealand. The programme is very successful- graduates in recent years have over an 80% employment rate.

But next year will see the end of the Migrant Study Grant that has allowed the course to operate. Along with the Refugee Study Grant which opens tertiary study opportunities to refugees the fund was cut in this years Budget. Also the ESOL Assessment Service that helps place people in these courses has been cut. The cuts have not had the publicity of the similarly pernicious cuts to night classes. They don’t effect as many people, and they dont kick in til next year, but they are just as short-sighted. For the sake of a $2million we are limiting the potential of our newest New Zealanders. They have a great deal of skill that will benefit our society and economy, and but for a small opportunity we will hold them back.

Here is what Prof John Prebble had to say about the Skilled Migrant course in 2007

It is probably true to say that there is no other programme at Victoria University where government funding and voluntary help are so heavily engaged. But there can be no doubt that the effort is worthwhile. Each course lasts only 12 weeks. And yet participants who for at least two years, often much longer, have failed to make any progress in mounting the employment ladder are radically transformed. Many arrive at the course close to giving up hope. Yet within weeks of graduation most are in demanding employment that calls on their skills, experience, and education. Within months the larger part of the remainder are also employed. It is rare for any educational programme to see such dramatic and tangible results in such a short time. The success of the programme is a matter of great satisfaction to both Victoria University and the Rotary Club of Wellington.

This is an easy one for Mrs Tolley. Please, go and visit the programme, talk to the graduates, see the contribution they are making. And do the right thing and give these people a chance to achieve their potential.

Posted in Migrants, Tolley and Education. | 0 Comments

Dom Post Editorial On Education

September 2nd, 2009

I’m never sure how many people actually read newspaper editorials. I know when I worked for Ministers we used to expend quite a bit of mental energy about them if they were particularly negative, but I think that was more because it might be representative of the wider approach of the paper. Then we would console ourselves that we were probably among the minority that actually read them.

Thus I am not sure how high a state of dudgen to get in about this morning’s bitter diatribe in the Dominion Post. Essentially it is an all out attack on the teaching profession- pinging them as political appratchiks, unprincipled and simultaneously describing them as “not the pivot around which education should revolve” and as being responsible for the failure of anyone who has been through the education system.

It seems the root of this rant is the reluctance of some teachers to implement the governments national standards/testing regime. What the writer ignores is that legislation implementing the standards was put through Parliament under urgency with no opportunity for public input. The initial timetable (now delayed) for putting in place standards was rushed and teachers felt they were only being given a token opportunity to be involved. Moreover what I have heard from teachers is that they felt there was a total lack of respect for, and understanding of, the work they had done over recent years in improving the assessment and reporting of student achievement.

Reading this editorial I suspect the author has not been in a classroom for many years. I visit at least a school a week and I can say with certainty that the quality of education being delivered by teachers is high, and the approaches they take innovative and world leading. Of course there are exceptions and of course it can be improved, but that won’t happen with the kind of attitudes evidenced in this editorial. It also won’t happen if the government cuts professional development funding as it has done this year.

In my view teachers are in fact the key to quality education. The focus must be on the students, but the key to their success is the passion, knowledge, training and skill of the people who are in front of them every day. They also are part of a partnership with parents and communities to ensure that children show up ready and able to learn. We need to invest and support teachers to continually improve their skills, use new technology and adopt new and innovative teaching practices. That will happen by respecting the professionalism and dedication of teachers not by taking silly, ill-informed pot-shots at them.

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Wellington Night Class Cuts Meeting

August 23rd, 2009

“The demise of night classes is bad for schools, for communities and for thousands of people who use them to learn something new.”

That is Bill English in 2006 talking about the possible demise of night classes. It did not happen, but he is doing his best to make sure it does now. This quote was used by a couple of participants at tonight’s meeting organised by Wellington High School to oppose the night class cuts. As with the others around the country there was a good turnout with around 150 people. Many people there had great stories of how school based night classes had made a major difference in their lives. One woman talked about how it had given her the confidence to go from being someone who had not finished school and was on a benefit through to a degree and a job. But more than that she felt it had given her children an understanding of the importance and value of education.

Alongside the short-sightedness of the cuts from an educational, economic and social point of view, the other thing that hit home tonight is the impact on the tutors and coordinators. If as is likely many school pull out of provision, they will be out of a job. One person came to me tonight who is the sole breadwinner in her household, and her full income ($25,000) is from her tutoring job. There are thousands more in her position. From a government that says its number one priority is jobs it is just one more contradiction.

Judging from tonight and the other meetings there is plenty of fight in this campaign. The saddest note of the evening was the refusal of the Minister or any other National MP to show up. As Trevor bravely showed in School Review process a few years ago, Ministers have an obligation to defend spending decisions. Anne Tolley or someone should have been there.

Posted in ACE and Tolley. | 1 Comment

Lifelong learning?

June 24th, 2009

It would be fair to say that when the current Speaker was the Minister of Education in the 1990s, we had a somewhat fractous relationship. He refused to come to Dunedin where at the time I was the Student Association President. So we drove to Christchurch to find him. This carried on for a year or so, and culminated with Lockwood climbing out a window at Canterbury University. Ah, those were the days.

But through it all, one thing I could say for Lockwood was that he took seriously his commitment to ‘life-long learning’. I disagreed with many of the policy ideas, but the concept that we should never stop learning, up-skilling, training and developing is one where I was in total agreement. It is only with this kind of view of education that society will continue to develop and productivity improve.

Sadly, the recent actions of the National Government, and Minister Tolley make it clear that there is very little commitment to the concept of lifelong learning at the moment. The roll call is sad:

a lack of real initatives on training as part of the Jobs Summit or the nine day fortnight;
no plan to implement the Skills Strategy;
cutting back the Training Incentive Allowance;
cuts to Adult and Community Education in schools that puts at risk the further education of thousands of people;
and now today we see Anne Tolley is reviewing the ability of seniors to access student loans.

This is short-sighted nonsense from National. Lockwood Smith understood that lifelong learning was part of a cohesive, productive society. Just like not properly funding super, we might not see all the effects of this immediately, but over time we will all pay for not making these investments.

Posted in Lockwood Smith, Tolley and Education. | 0 Comments