Natural Standards
Excellent and worth watching.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=9d9ZBpg3sMo
Kelvin Smythe - still right on the money…
In his latest posting “John Armstrong - charter schools, and fairy tales from the ACT conference”, the redoubtable Kelvin Smythe continues his resolute pursuit of the truth.
“When are public schools going to be freed from the hold of the ignorant, the ideologically-driven and the bureaucratic to do better what they do best, that is to inspire and lift all children no matter their backgrounds?
Warwick Elley in his comment on OECD reports says ‘that New Zealand is consistently ranked in the top three or four countries in literacy. And in general, the only countries that consistently surpass New Zealand are the ethnically homogenous ones of Finland, Korea, and Japan.’
Armstrong’s column prompts further comment.
Armstrong is deluded if thinks performance pay based on the measurement of narrow perceptions of numeracy and literacy, and on value-added notions related to national standards (which don’t yet exist), then somehow linked to imprecise deciles, and to class compositions that vary widely within a school, and which establishes a cash nexus as the motivation for teachers working with children, rather than love for them and professional responsibility – is the key to improving education in New Zealand and preparing children for the 21st century. Especially, when New Zealand public schools are one of PISA’s stars in literacy and numeracy, and when they are also a PISA star in the teaching of children from disadvantaged backgrounds.
It’s not from the owning of the schools that profit is sought by the corporates but from consultancies, teaching materials, and assessment systems. That is why Murdoch, for instance, has bought in, in such a big way, to education resources. And please don’t try to say charter schools are not about globalised education: powerful companies throughout America are tooling up for participation. Charter schools are a way for national identities to be overridden, education to be globalised, and massive profits to be extracted across national boundaries. It is these companies that will be providing the range of assessment systems in which big profits are so enticingly available. It is strange isn’t it, the national identity that will find its way into globalised schools will be mainly American, and to a lesser extent, English, and Australian. All countries New Zealand public schools comfortably outscore in PISA.”
For the full article - and other “inconvenient truths” (for the politicians) - go to [http://www.networkonnet.co.nz/index.php?section=latest]
Real lessons…
Written by Regina Brett, 90 years old, of the Plain Dealer, Cleveland , Ohio .
“To celebrate growing older, I once wrote the 45 lessons life taught me. It is the most requested column I’ve ever written.
My odometer rolled over to 90 in August, so here is the column once more:
1. Life isn’t fair, but it’s still good
2. When in doubt, just take the next small step.
3. Life is too short - enjoy it.
4. Your job won’t take care of you when you are sick. Your friends and
family will.
5. Pay off your credit cards every month.
6. You don’t have to win every argument. Stay true to yourself.
7. Cry with someone. It’s more healing than crying alone.
8. It’s OK to get angry with God. He can take it.
9. Save for retirement starting with your first paycheck.
10. When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.
11. Make peace with your past so it won’t screw up the present.
12. It’s OK to let your children see you cry.
13. Don’t compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about.
14. If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn’t be in it.
15. Everything can change in the blink of an eye But don’t worry; God never blinks.
16. Take a deep breath. It calms the mind.
17. Get rid of anything that isn’t useful Clutter weighs you down in many ways.
18. Whatever doesn’t kill you really does make you stronger.
19. It’s never too late to be happy But it’s all up to you and no one else.
20. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don’t take no for an answer.
21. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie. Don’t
save it for a special occasion. Today is special.
22. Over prepare, then go with the flow.
23. Be eccentric now. Don’t wait for old age to wear purple.
24. The most important sex organ is the brain.
25. No one is in charge of your happiness but you.
26. Frame every so-called disaster with these words ‘In five years, will
this matter?’
27. Always choose life.
28. Forgive but don’t forget.
29. What other people think of you is none of your business
30. Time heals almost everything. Give time time.
31. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.
32. Don’t take yourself so seriously. No one else does.
33. Believe in miracles.
34. God loves you because of who God is, not because of anything you did or didn’t do.
35. Don’t audit life. Show up and make the most of it now.
36. Growing old beats the alternative — dying young.
37. Your children get only one childhood.
38. All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.
39. Get outside every day. Miracles are waiting everywhere.
40. If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else’s, we’d
grab ours back.
41. Envy is a waste of time. Accept what you already have not what you need..
42. The best is yet to come…
43. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.
44. Yield.
45. Life isn’t tied with a bow, but it’s still a gift.”
Superman and being entangled in the government narrative
By Kelvin Smythe
Over recent days in the NZ Herald, Simon Collins has written a generally praiseworthy series on poverty in New Zealand. As the series developed, the sincerity of the writer became clear, but how would he handle two key challenges: education and overall solutions? His concluding article was weak, but that is a matter for another posting, but his one on education was unfortunate, becoming entangled as it did in the prevailing government education narrative and never breaking free. This entanglement demonstrates that the narrative has become so dominant in the media (and public mind) that even a compassionate and experienced a journalist such as Simon Collins could not rise above it.
The government narrative goes that, yes, New Zealand has a public primary school system that performs very well for most children, but for many Maori and Pacific Island children it has demonstrably failed. Hence the need for the government to step in on behalf of those children and, with the bureaucracy and certain academics and consultants, impose solutions. Progress will only be made, the narrative continues, by heroic outside intervention, through supermen (and women) appearing out of the bureaucracies, academia, education businesses, foreign education systems, and globalised corporations – all willing to work within the boundaries set by their patron, the government.
And while we are about it, the narrative continues, as good as public primary schools are, they could do better as well, so we will not be exempting higher decile schools from those solutions. As a result we have the existential situation in respect to lower decile schools of a non-solution for a problem that does exist, and in higher decile schools a solution for a problem that doesn’t.
For all schools, the narrative continues, those solutions will not include more finance because all government expenditure is being cut, and education can’t be immune from that. Teachers will just have to work harder as any new policies will need to be funded from changes to existing funding, for instance, teacher-children ratios being increased. And at the extreme end of this government-generated narrative we find the prime minister finding himself able to declare in a televised election debate that New Zealand public primary schools are ‘letting New Zealand down’.
Simon Collins is only on the outer edges of this narrative but he is definitely there and very harmfully so given his obviously good intentions.
He begins his schools’ coverage of the poverty issue by saying that the OECD in its PISA report ‘implies that our schools are the worst in the world at helping students overcome the disadvantages of being born into poor families.’ Simon Collins, led by the narrative, seems then to have looked through the statistics to find a set consistent with it, and thought he’d found one, which is most unfortunate because he hadn’t.
He stills doesn’t twig to his mistake when he reports that ‘the gap in children’s reading levels between the top and the bottom quarters is slightly wider than average, so the effect of socio-economic status is more amplified in New Zealand than in any of 38 other countries.’ The interpretation hinges on the word ‘gap’. He doesn’t get the message that the gap was pronounced because New Zealand did so well in the teaching of reading for most New Zealand children. This does not mean, however, that New Zealand teachers were not teaching children from lower decile schools, relative to their poverty, at least as well as other countries. In fact, and this is what the government narrative is intended to obscure, New Zealand teachers are teaching them considerably better. America is teaching children from poorer homes a lot less successfully than New Zealand but the gap is not so wide because it does not teach the children from more privileged families anywhere near so well.
Oh dear!
I invited Professor John O’Neill of Massey University to comment on Simon Collins’ statistics and interpretation.
John O’Neill writes: ‘Throughout the report New Zealand is referred to as a high-performing country, with students achieving well above the OECD average in reading performance.’
‘The PISA report also shows that fourteen percent of New Zealand students achieve below Level 2 (the OECD benchmark for life success). The OECD average is 19 percent. Sixty-six percent of New Zealand students achieve at Level 3 or above. The OECD average is around 57 percent. New Zealand has 37 percent of ‘resilient’ students, those who overcome disadvantaged backgrounds. The OECD average is 31 percent.’
My own investigation into OECD surveys shows New Zealand is consistently ranked in the top three or four countries in literacy. The countries that surpass New Zealand are only the ethnically homogenous ones such as Finland, Korea, and Japan. In literacy, pakeha students usually have a mean score higher than any other country.
As for children from poorer families, Ivan Snook, in a review of the highly regarded book, The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better poses the question: ‘Why does New Zealand do much better on the measurement of educational achievement than its degree of inequality would predict.’ The answer no doubt is complex, but certainly contributed to by the high status of Maori culture in New Zealand society and the endeavours of its education leaders, and just as certainly by schools doing an outstanding job.
But with the ‘failings’ of New Zealand public primary schools re-verified through his woeful misinterpretation of statistics, Simon Collins proceeds, not unkindly I reiterate, to fit his story to a scaled down superman narrative – the superman in this instance taking the form of the Auckland University academic, Professor Stuart McNaughton was once a great academic hope for the New Zealand reading tradition, a likely staunch defender of faith in the classroom teacher, but he chose instead a successful career within academia. The name for this current programme at work in South Auckland happens to be Starpath.
A decile 1 school is referred to that has lifted literacy levels to the national average by monitoring children’s achievement and changing approaches when required.
This is good news in one way, but in being presented as news is bad news for the status of schools. I go into many low decile schools that have lifted children’s literacy levels to the national average without the aid of a superman. Having academics around, and other forms of supermen, can be helpful at times, but they are by no means essential.
But there is an opaqueness in the academic’s comment: What does ‘lifting literacy levels to the national average’ mean? Is he referring to standardised tests or is he referring to national standards?
I suspect standardised tests – fair enough and all the better.
The point is, though, that the national standards’ policy is serving to deeply confuse interpretations, practices in reading and literacy, and the ensuing debate.
There are no national standards – there are no national standards because there is no moderating of national standards, and with no school moderation, we have no national standards, only confusion. There is only the oxymoronic of individual school national standards. National standards have wrought havoc with accurate information about school performance. I have been in schools claiming great success in national standards as against schools of a similar decile, only to find the raw data is about the same. As well when children from contributing schools move on to intermediate, very little differentiation between schools is detectible.
The academic then goes on to say that to improve some Tongan boys’ reading comprehension, they ‘deliberately restructured the year 5 and 6 to capture [their] interest and engagement.’
Well done that academic, but if he, as well as doing his admittedly worthwhile work in schools, could help in the campaign to get the government out of classrooms, so schools could get back to conversations amongst themselves, we wouldn’t need a superman to rediscover Sylvia Ashton-Warner.
The academic goes on to point out the emphasis the Starpath programme places on increasing parent-teacher relations, also the attention it is giving to providing children from some Tamaki schools with laptops.
Once again, our superman is right on the button, but his programme, in a wider sense is a distraction, and an escape clause for government inaction. Our superman’s programme is akin to charity, when it is not charity that is needed but a direct empowering of schools through greater professional freedom and increased finance. Greater professional freedom, though, will not be allowed because, as the narrative goes, schools have been shown to have failed in the task of helping children from impoverished families, so they cannot be trusted. And, as well, more finance will not be allowed for the same reason – schools cannot be trusted, teachers being hidebound, accountability-shirkers who have been shown to let New Zealand down, and would only waste the money.
What hope for the media, when a writer as compassionate and experienced as Simon Collins gets it so wrong and ends up harming the very group he set out to help but, then, that is the dynamic of the times – all government programmes end up harming the poor, none more so than those with the express purpose of helping them.
Read this and other articles on Kelvin’s blog: http://www.networkonnet.co.nz/index.php?section=latest
Even in the States…
The Harvard Business Review expresses it’s (well-founded) concern about the effect of a curriculum that focuses on just “readin’, writin’ and ‘rithmetic” - just like National Standards do; see for yourself: http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/10/where_no_child_left_behind_wen.html
When you’ve read that; consider yesterday’s spin-countering release from the New Zealand Principals Federation on class size - the government’s most recent “reform du jour” for education.
Class Size Does Matter
”The most common question parents ask when their child starts school is ‘how big is my child’s class?’ said Paul Drummond, President of the New Zealand Principals’ Federation (NZPF). ‘Instinctively, parents understand that the smaller the class, the more teaching attention their child will get and they are right,’ he said.
The latest report from Treasury justifying its advice to the Minister on increasing class size to free up funds to address underachievement uses carefully selected research to support its position claiming that it is the quality of the teaching that makes a difference, not class size.
‘We would not dispute the impact on children’s learning of having a first class quality teaching profession,’ said Drummond, but it’s not the only factor that makes a difference. A South Auckland school study showed that learners with poorly developed literacy need smaller classes in order to have the support to become confident readers. Increasing class size would be in direct conflict with the Government’s goal to lift the performance of underachievers,’ he said.
Further studies in the UK demonstrated that larger classes produce more and larger groups of learners and large classes have negative effects on teaching, learning and learners’ concentration. The studies also found that in smaller classes, teachers were more likely to spend time with individual learners.
‘Treasury is trying to save money, not help underachievers and increased class sizes will create unintended negative consequences for all kids’ learning,’ said Drummond. ‘No matter how excellent your teacher is, the bigger the class, the less time a teacher can spend with each student.’
‘We have a world class education system now and our achievement rankings are up with the best in the world. We want to build on that platform and bring more of our Maori and Pasifika children up to this high standard,’ says Drummond. ‘That means investing more, not taking away from and undermining a system that is doing well,’ he said.
‘The research is very clear. Our parents are right to be asking about their children’s class size. Class size does matter and Kiwi parents know smaller is better!’ said Drummond.”
Now - one last step - just ask yourself: “Who’s needs are really being met in the headlong rush to reform our education system - one acclaimed again this year by the OECD as being among the world’s best?” Everything can always be improved - but are we doing the right things for the right reasons? The things that make a positive difference for kids…
From the NZ Principals Federation latest flyer…
President’s Message
Waverley Park School
Tēnā koe Kerry
Did you know that the first country in the world to introduce charter schools was New Zealand? Tomorrow’s Schools reforms introduced self-managed, community controlled (through boards of trustees) charter schools. The charter is the document of accountability between the school and the Ministry, and ERO is the independent body that makes sure the school is meeting compliance requirements and is managing its self-review processes well. It’s a system that works, especially since the review of our NZ curriculum. Our public school, charter model coupled with this excellent curriculum has given us world class achievement results for some years. So what then is all the fuss over charter schools?
The difference between our charter schools and the ones being proposed by Government is that the proposed ones are ideologically driven whereas our charter schools are about giving every Kiwi kid a fair go in a publicly funded schooling system. The model proposed is an American model called KIPP. KIPP schools in America are populated by children from disadvantaged backgrounds, 95% of whom are African-American and Latino children. Click here for more. Interestingly, they are described as the ‘underserved’. Typically, these schools are dependent on high levels of philanthropic funding. To check who the donors are click here. Who will be our Bill & Melinda Gates? Where are our Doris & Donald Fisher with their $60million to invest in our charter schools?
They are heavily assessment focused around narrow objectives and precise targets for test results. Test results are the KIPP schools’ accountability measure. In this climate it is believed innovation will thrive and good results will flow. I believe not everything that counts is measurable and not everything that is measurable, counts.
New Zealand schools are more ambitious than this. Our expectations are much harder and higher. We expect children to achieve in all aspects of life not just a few narrow academic skills.
In America there is a chain of KIPP schools. KIPP schools sometimes show better results than other American charter schools. The drop outs are not taken into account in the statistics and are not replaced so classes get smaller over time and the problem kids have been weeded out. The results for KIPP schools thus produce a somewhat skewed picture of reality. It is surprising that the KIPP model is singled out as a model for New Zealand since it is kids who drop out that the Government is especially keen to pick up but KIPP doesn’t do that.
The other consistent research finding is that charter schools accentuate societal disparities. Inequalities that already exist in society are further polarized by having charter schools. A further finding (OECD, 2012) suggests that the more choice there is in Education, the greater the social disparities.
Our country already records high levels of inequality between the top income earners and the lowest. Such gaps are unhealthy for the whole nation. On the evidence we have to hand the model of charter school being promoted will exacerbate that situation. It is not the Kiwi way. It is the American way. I believe we want integration in our schools, not segregation. Charter schools can only create greater social injustice within communities already challenged by disparities.
I agree that it takes a village to raise a child but it takes a village of quality public schools to raise a prosperous, healthy nation.
Click here for previous media release on charter schools and here for recently published article in NZ Teacher.
Please feel free to use all or any part of this text or the media releases for your school newsletters or other publications.
Thanks again for your comments. I value your feedback. Don’t forget to also make comments on our website and facebook site which you can all share.
Naku noa
Paul Drummond
pauld@nzpf.ac.nz
A starter for ten…
So began the compere of the popular quiz show “University Challenge”.
Today, I read
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/education/news/article.cfm?c_id=35&objectid=10787648
then http://www.networkonnet.co.nz/index.php?section=latest
The starter for ten: once you get past the “PR spin” - what really is happening to our kids and communities?
Welcome back…
The start of a new school year and the inherent changes can be a bit scary – especially if you’re five. One wee guy started this year by giving his mum the benefit of his reasoning as to why school wasn’t where he needed to be anymore: after all, he’d tried it last year and he much preferred hanging out with Grandad and his mates. So mum enlisted my assistance.
You see, she’d managed to get him to school; it was getting him to let go of her leg and stay in his classroom that was the problem. Rather than turn the struggle into a public spectacle, we opted to have a bit of a chat in my office. Following that, mum headed away while Mr 5 stayed with me. He was upset until he realised Mum had gone – all hope lost?
To give him settling time, I started to chat with him about the need for him to be at school. Confidently, he told me that the problem was that the teachers had made a mistake: he wasn’t supposed to be in room 8; he was supposed to be in room 10.
“No,” I told him, “I’m the one in charge of who goes where and I’m the one who put you in room 8.”
He stared at me in a way that indicated Homer Simpson’s “Doh!” was echoing around his head. Attempting to get to the bottom of his resistance, I gently asked if there was anything worrying him.
Unhesitatingly he said, “My sister,” - she’s older - “she’s really mean to me. She does stuff to me when Mum isn’t watching.”
“You need to tell Mum if she’s being mean to you,” I said – apparently stating the bleeding obvious.
“I did!” he remonstrated passionately, “but she just doesn’t DEAL with it!” Undaunted, I tried again:
“Maybe you could write it down…”
“I do,” he interrupted, “in my pale green notebook. When I’m older, I’ll be able to look at it and remember all the mean things she did to me when I was a kid.”
“Perhaps you should read it to Mum,” I offered.
“Can’t - I can write, but I can’t read.” At this point, I knew I was dealing with a master debater; nevertheless, I tried the same “anything else worrying you” again (one definition of stupidity is repeatedly doing the same thing but expecting a different outcome). Mr 5 was more than equal to my feeble attempts:
“My granddad is really, really old and he’s gonna die soon.” I hadn’t seen this one coming, so I rather inanely said, “How old is he?”
“He’s sixty!”
“Sixty’s not old,” I said, “I’m nearly sixty.”
“My grandad’s sixty-one!” he said – retaking the moral high ground.
“Is he sick?” I asked – ever the master interrogator…
“No. It’s just that he’s really old - the doctor said he’s wearing out.” Far be it from me to argue with that report from the medical profession: clearly, Mr 5 had been playing close attention to Grandad and his cronies as they had yarned. This was confirmed the following morning as we headed once more to the classroom.
He had one more fling of the dice, so mum left him with me again. Taking a much more direct route to getting him back into the room than the day before, I said, “Mum’s gone so let’s get down to your room.”
“OK,” he sniffed. Despite walking slowly “cos I fell off my scooter and I think I’ve broken my leg…” we eventually arrived outside the classroom door. I realised he’d stopped following me and I turned to find him tossing back a mouthful from his water bottle.
“Let’s go,” I said.
Pointing at the door with the bottle, he sighed and said, “Ok – but I’m gonna need a drink before going in there!”
I was beginning to feel like one too … the year had definitely started.
It’s been a while…
It’s been a while since the last posting here. Under the heading “The Most Important Speech on Education in Years”, this link arrived in an e-mail this morning:
http://www.ucc.org/justice/public-education/pdfs/NatlOTL.pdf
Please take the time to read all of it.
And then ask yourself why would the USA do this to their kids; and having seen the damage: why exactly are we in New Zealand happy for it to be done to ours?
More reason than ever to worry…
I have always trusted and admired Kelvin Smythe’s educational ‘nous’. He has a proven track record of being “on the money” with things educational. Worryingly, his latest blog concludes:
“What a spot we are in. Social democracy is a more fragile thing than we might suppose. The Orwellian characteristics of the current control over schools are ominous. There is the rushed legislation, the lying, the scapegoating, the puppet advisory groups, the bent reporting of the review office, the bullying over charters and statutory interventions, the bent behaviour of the ministry, the stifling of universities, the lack of variety in professional development, the industrialisation and narrowing of the curriculum, and to finish it off, a compliant, facile media.
We need to be united to fight off this latest education obscenity. Are you up for it?”
Read how he reached his conclusion regarding the need to continue the fight:
http://www.networkonnet.co.nz/index.php?section=latest&id=363
