The education sector union, NZEI Te Riu Roa says a recently released OECD report on performance pay for teachers has raised serious concerns about how performance-based pay impacts on the quality of teaching.
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The education sector union, NZEI Te Riu Roa says a recently released OECD report on performance pay for teachers has raised serious concerns about how performance-based pay impacts on the quality of teaching.

National Secretary Paul Goulter says the report has highlighted many of the concerns that education professionals have been trying to tell the government.

The report has found that there is no relationship between student performance and the use of performance-based pay schemes.

The OECD report says a policy that helps teachers to become innovators and researchers in education and not just servants who deliver curricula is the best approach for raising teacher quality.

"The issue is - what are the measures we need to use?  This is where the necessary debate starts and NZEI Te Riu Roa welcomes the opportunity to be involved in the debate," says Mr Goulter.

"Teachers would support remuneration based on a system that recognizes expertise based on good quality evidence from practice-based performance."

"But National Standards simply do not provide any basis for discussion because what is absolutely clear is that performance pay based on dodgy National Standards would have a detrimental effect on our education system."

"Let’s not forget that we have one of the highest quality public education systems in the world."

"We will work with the government to build a pay system that is based on evidence, is  fair and lifts quality teaching and learning."

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The education sector union, NZEI Te Riu Roa says the government's decision to increase class sizes will have a severe impact on the quality of education in primary schools.
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National President, Ian Leckie says it is outrageous that the government talks about improving education quality, especially for those in the bottom 20 percent, while at the same time adopting policies that will do the exact opposite.

Under this policy 90 percent of schools will be affected.

"What parent is going to be happy with the prospect of their six year old going into a large class at the very time they need good quality time with teachers."

"The government has once again not listened to the education sector and instead been getting its education policy advice straight from Treasury."

"It is also ironic that the Minister acknowledges that our education system is amongst the best in the world and yet is bringing in a policy to directly undermine it."

"All parents know that young children thrive when they have better one-on-one time with teachers. So how does a reduction in the number of teachers in our schools and the creation of bigger class sizes result in better outcomes?  It won’t happen. Sadly the Minister is living in a fantasy world."

"What's most distressing is that this will have the biggest impact on the most vulnerable children - the 20 percent underachieving tail."
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The NZEI Re Riu Roa says ensuring the delivery of quality education needs to be the priority in any reshaping of Christchurch's education sector.
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The NZEI Re Riu Roa says ensuring the delivery of quality education needs to be the priority in any reshaping of Christchurch's education sector.
 
National President, Ian Leckie says it’s imperative to keep children's education at the forefront of any changes to the way education is delivered in Christchurch.
 
Mr Leckie says the NZEI Re Riu Roa will be closely scrutinizing the Ministry of Education and Tertiary Education Commission report 'Directions for Education Renewal in Greater Christchurch' released today to ensure that those principles are being upheld.
 
He says fiscal and political considerations should not dominate over quality education.
 
"We want Canterbury children to have no disadvantage because of the earthquakes.  This is definitely not a time for radical experiments.  Instead it is an opportunity to invest wisely in education, building on the basis of what we know works best," he says.
 
"We also want to ensure that communities are able to continue to be actively involved in their local schools - something that has underpinned our education sector successfully for many years."
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The publication of school performance data based on national standards is both unfair and reckless, says NZEI Te Riu Roa National President Ian Leckie.
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The publication of school performance data based on national standards is both unfair and reckless, says NZEI Te Riu Roa National President Ian Leckie.

Mr Leckie says the Ministry of Education should accept its share of responsibility for the way the information will be used once it is made public.

"Clearly that information, once released, will be used to compare one school with another and the Ministry is being irresponsible and reckless in trying to dodge its role in that outcome."

"The Minister of Education Hekia Parata has said she does not support performance data being turned into league tables but if the Ministry releases the information then that is exactly what will happen."

"We know national standards are unfair and unreliable.  They do not give an accurate indication of how well a student, a teacher, or a school is performing. In fact, we know they are totally misleading."

"We would urge parents to take a close look at their children’s schools, assess how that school meets their own children's needs and not be persuaded by the erroneous, unfair  and inaccurate information that they will soon be seeing in published league tables in the media," he says.

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The education sector union NZEI Te Riu Roa says smaller class sizes could provide a solution to what appears to be a teacher oversupply situation.
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NZEI says it is aware that teacher graduates are finding it difficult to find jobs and many schools say they are getting hundreds of applicants for one or two vacant positions.

NZEI President Ian Leckie says the oversupply could be turned into an opportunity to invest more in teaching and learning and give extra assistance to vulnerable and underachieving students.

“We know that for a long time there was a serious teacher shortage in this country and things have changed quite quickly.  The oversupply is not necessarily going to last and it’s important that these teachers are not lost to the profession long-term”.

“There has already been considerable investment in training teachers so it makes sense to use those extra teachers to lower student-teacher ratios and create smaller classes,” he says.  

In junior classes ratios have improved.  Effective teaching happens in smaller classes but in Years 4-8 ratios still stand at one teacher to 29 students which in effect can mean class sizes of 30 or more.   NZEI has long advocated that the teacher-student ratio should be lowered to 1:25.   

Mr Leckie says “I’d bet every school in the country would welcome another one or two teachers onto their staff because parents and teachers know that children’s learning improves with more teacher contact”.

“The Government talks about the need to improve the quality of teaching and achieve better student outcomes.  Here is an opportunity to do that by not only ensuring our trained teachers have jobs but also giving children more individual and valuable teaching time”.

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The education sector union NZEI Te Riu Roa is welcoming New Zealand-based research which clearly debunks government claims that charter schools will help disadvantaged students and raise achievement levels.
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As part of its coalition deal with the ACT Party, the government is setting up charter schools in south Auckland and Christchurch.  It says charter schools will help raise student achievement, especially in areas where it claims underachievement is entrenched.
 
The Education Policy Response Group – made up of 12 Massey University experts has been studying charter and free schools in Sweden, Britain and the United States.  It has concluded that charter schools can actually cause more harm to the students they are designed to help and damage local communities.
 
“This just proves that the government’s push to introduce charter schools is ideological and is not based on any hard evidence,” says NZEI National Secretary Paul Goulter.
 
The Education Policy Response Group’s research shows that the only people who benefit from charter schools are a few highly motivated individuals and families.  For others, it says charter schools do not provide more choice, they often promote greater inequality for disadvantaged students, and they fail to eliminate underachievement.
 
Paul Goulter says New Zealanders need to keep asking why we need charter schools, and start demanding some real answers from the government.
 
“New Zealand students and schools do better than those in any of the countries where charter schools have been established.  We need to be asking why we want public money going into privately-run charter schools when the balance of overseas evidence so clearly shows they won’t add value or benefit New Zealand’s education system or local communities”.
 
“It’s refreshing to see some solid New Zealand based research coming out on charter schools but it’s a shame that all the thinking on New Zealand’s charter school experiment is being outsourced to a government-appointed Charter Schools Working Group, which is largely made up of people who have a vested interest in the idea,” Mr Goulter says.
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The education sector union NZEI Te Riu Roa says extending paid parental leave would be a meaningful way to invest in children and families, and government attempts to shut down debate on the issue is short-sighted.
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The government says it will veto a bill put forward by Labour MP Sue Moroney which proposes to increase paid parental leave from 14 weeks to 26.

NZEI says the bill is a sensible and long overdue measure to bring New Zealand families up to speed with those in most other OECD countries including Australia.  

The latest OECD data shows that New Zealand spent proportionately less than any other OECD country on parental leave in 2007 - only 5 percent of national income per person for each new baby, compared with an OECD average of 29.5 percent.

The financial cost of extending paid parental leave could also be offset by the resulting reduction in subsidies to early childhood education services.  

NZEI National Executive member Hayley Whitaker says early childhood teachers strongly support parents being able to spend more time with their babies because they know how important it is for children to form strong bonds with their parents.  

“We know that the current limit of 14 weeks paid leave means that many families suffer financial stress, and feel they have no choice but to return to the workforce before they are ready to. They also then face the challenge of finding high quality, affordable care for their babies,” she says.

“I am sure most early childhood teachers would see supporting parents to stay home with young babies as more important than getting government subsidies when those parents have to rush back to work reluctantly for financial reasons”.

Extending paid parental leave would help give all New Zealand children a better start in life, which in turn improves their chances of educational success down the track.  It is supported by a wide range of child advocacy groups including the Families Commission and the Commissioner for Children in its 2011 report into childcare for under –twos.

Hayley Whitaker says “any government move to veto Sue Moroney’s bill is undemocratic and shutting down much-needed parliamentary and public debate on the issue is short-sighted in terms of investing in our children’s future”.
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The education sector union NZEI Te Riu Roa says the Charter School Working Group needs to work in the public interest, not the vested interest
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The education sector union NZEI Te Riu Roa says the Charter School Working Group needs to work in the public interest, not the vested interest.
The government has announced the makeup of a working group setting up new charter schools and says it will consult with a wide range of people.

"So far we haven't seen a very transparent political agenda on charter schools and there has been very little detail about where these schools will be established and how they will be set up and run," says NZEI President Ian Leckie.

"Given there is no real representation on the group from anyone who actually works at the chalk face of education, it is important that there is genuine consultation with schools, parents and those communities which will be affected".

He says "the public still hasn’t been told why New Zealand needs charter schools or how giving taxpayer money to business to run a school will actually make a difference to underachieving students".

Overseas experience shows that charter schools do nothing to raise educational achievement and can take money away from existing schools and undermine communities.  Even the government's own officials have advised that the success of charter schools overseas is mixed and they have not consistently led to significant increase in achievement among lower performing students.
Ian Leckie says the Charter School Working Group needs to be asking some key questions on behalf of the public, rather than interested parties or businesses.

"It's important to know how charter schools will be authorised and how accountable they will be in terms of student achievement and financial performance. We also need to know how compliant they will have to be with existing legislation, how critical it is to the government that for-profit private operators be involved, how student selection will work and how the view of parents and communities will be taken into account in governance models".

"However with the amount of scepticism and contested international evidence about the success of charter schools, perhaps the first question the Working Group should look at is why the New Zealand education system needs charter schools at all," he says.

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The education sector union NZEI Te Riu Roa says principals and teachers oppose performance pay linked to student achievement outcomes because evidence shows this has a negative impact on quality teaching and children's learning.
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The education sector union NZEI Te Riu Roa says principals and teachers oppose performance pay linked to student achievement outcomes because evidence shows this has a negative impact on quality teaching and children’s learning.

NZEI President Ian Leckie said performance pay for teachers overseas was generally linked to student test results because it was seen to be more "objective" than principal or Board appraisals.  However, recent US research [1] shows that judging teacher effectiveness based on gains in students' test scores resulted in one in three teachers being mis-identified. This was because of the large margin of error in test results and the wide variability in ability of students in any one class.

Performance pay systems resulted in teachers competing with each other, distorting learning by "teaching to the test" and putting test results ahead of a child's well-being and overall learning potential.

"Teaching is a job where people need to work together. Performance pay would result in competition between teachers that would be unhealthy for kids," Mr Leckie says.

"What we want is a pay system that keeps our best teachers in the class room and that recognises their skills, knowledge and expertise in a fair and professional way. We want to focus on recruiting the best teachers we can, keeping them learning throughout their careers, and making sure teaching is seen as a highly valued job."

"New Zealand teachers are always ambitious to do better, and relative to other western countries, we spend less on teachers and get more 'bang for our buck' with our world-leading student results in international surveys like PISA."

He said as with any profession, the pay system for teachers needed to be built in partnership with Government and communities with the primary aim of supporting high quality teaching and learning.

[1] Error Rates in Measuring Teacher and School Performance Based on Student Test Score Gains (National Council for Education and the Economy report, 2010, USA).

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The education sector union NZEI Te Riu Roa is asking why Treasury is trying to call the shots in education and says it needs to stick to its knitting.
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The education sector union NZEI Te Riu Roa is asking why Treasury is trying to call the shots in education and says it needs to stick to its knitting.
Treasury Secretary Gabriel Makhlouf is singling out student achievement and teacher quality and performance as the key to the country's success.  He says what’s needed is more investment in teachers, better measures to reward them and more robust career progression.
He is also repeating earlier Treasury advice around increasing class sizes and student-teacher ratios in a bid to free up money in education.
NZEI is questioning what expertise Treasury has in trying to shape educational policy.
"It is well known and I think most people would agree that while teacher quality is very important, teacher quality alone cannot raise student achievement as Mr Makhlouf is arguing," says NZEI National Secretary Paul Goulter.
There are a range of factors which affect student achievement.  New Zealand researcher John Hattie says a child's educational achievement is most closely linked to parental hopes and expectations.
"Treasury would be better to focus on economic solutions to child poverty and inequality.  It needs to be looking at how we can ensure children are well fed, well housed and well-clothed so that they are in a position to get the most out of their learning," Mr Goulter says.
NZEI says teachers want to be involved in making New Zealand's top performing system even better and ensuring that New Zealand has the highest quality teachers.
"To do that the government needs to listen and take advice from those at the chalkface about how best to build and maintain a quality teaching workforce and raise student achievement.  It would be disappointing to see Treasury being relied upon as the experts in education".
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The education sector union NZEI Te Riu Roa says International Women's Day is a good time to highlight the government’s shameful record on pay and employment equity.
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The education sector union NZEI Te Riu Roa says International Women's Day is a good time to highlight the government’s shameful record on pay and employment equity.

Latest figures show the gender pay gap has increased. The Quarterly Employment Survey figures show that the gender pay gap for the final quarter last year was 13%, an increase from 12.85% in the September quarter.

NZEI National Secretary Paul Goulter says that is clearly the result of the government's lack of commitment on pay and employment equity.

When it took office three years ago the government scrapped the pay and employment equity unit within the Department of Labour and halted further pay and employment investigations.

"It has also systematically ignored evidence of institutional pay inequity within education," Mr Goulter says.

A completed pay investigation involving around 800 Ministry of Education support workers who work with special needs children, found they are significantly underpaid when compared to male workers in other sectors who have similar skills levels and responsibilities.  

Other pay and employment equity investigations in education have also shown areas where women employees are not being treated fairly or are being discriminated against in terms of pay, career advancement and the value of their work.

Mr Goulter says "it’s frustrating that despite firm evidence of institutional gender discrimination, no action has been taken on these issues and women continue to be denied the opportunities they deserve".

NZEI continues to call on the government to show some real commitment to closing the gender pay gap, and ensure all women workers are treated fairly and equally.

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The education sector union NZEI Te Riu Roa says it's a shame the Education Review Office doesn’t report on what schools really think of National Standards, because it would paint a very different picture.
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The education sector union NZEI Te Riu Roa says it's a shame the Education Review Office doesn’t report on what schools really think of National Standards, because it would paint a very different picture.

ERO has told a parliamentary select committee that at least 80 percent of schools are getting on with the business of implementing National Standards.

"If you are just measuring compliance that is the simplistic picture you’re going to get," says NZEI President Ian Leckie.

"However the back-story is that schools are coming at National Standards from a position of forced or reluctant compliance and they have no confidence that they will do anything to raise student achievement".

"There is deep concern about the statistical validity and reliability of National Standards information, particularly with schools expected to submit National Standards student achievement data to Education Ministry with their annual financial statement by May 31," he says.

That means the information will be publicly available and will be able to be aggregated into crude league tables that will unfairly label students, schools and their communities.

Ian Leckie says the threat of National Standards based league tables is causing a lot of anxiety and nervousness among schools.

"There is huge variation in the way National Standards are being implemented and interpreted and they do not accurately reflect each child’s overall achievement or progress. To use them to compare schools or base funding and resourcing decisions on, would be completely unfair."

"It's all very well for ERO to report high levels of National Standards compliance because compliance is all the government is interested in. What it doesn’t want to hear is the back-story of reluctant implementation, serious lack of confidence in National Standards data and real concern over the prospect of unfair and misleading league tables," Mr Leckie says.
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The education sector union NZEI Te Riu Roa says all schools and early childhood centres will be waiting with interest on the results of a ministerial inquiry into the employment of a convicted sex offender in education, to see if there are lessons to be learned.
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The education sector union NZEI Te Riu Roa says all schools and early childhood centres will be waiting with interest on the results of a ministerial inquiry into the employment of a convicted sex offender in education, to see if there are lessons to be learned.

The Education Minister has announced the inquiry after being told that a convicted sex offender had been arrested while working in education for allegedly breaching their conditions of release.

NZEI says it has not been informed about the case and has no details about the individual or what schools or communities they were working in.

NZEI President Ian Leckie says every step must be taken to ensure children are safe and for parents to have confidence in their schools and early childhood centres.

"There are robust processes in place around teacher registration and employment but it appears a serious breach of those may have occurred.  We need to know how to prevent it happening again and tighten up any loopholes which may have been exposed.  Hopefully that’s exactly what the ministerial review will deliver".

NZEI looks forward to being involved in the inquiry and seeing any recommendations that come out of it.
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The education sector union NZEI Te Riu Roa says all government decision-making and policy should be subject to the "is it good for children?" test.
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The education sector union NZEI Te Riu Roa says all government decision-making and policy should be subject to the "is it good for children?" test.
 
NZEI’s submission to the Green Paper on Vulnerable Children calls on the government to consider the development and resourcing of an effective legislated action plan to benefit all New Zealand children and help those at risk of abuse and neglect.
 
According to a report released last year New Zealand has one of the lowest levels of public investment in children and young people, ranking 28 of 30 OECD nations.
 
"If we really want to protect all our children and give them the opportunities they deserve, New Zealand’s total investment in its children and young people must be increased," says NZEI President Ian Leckie.
 
“That means any proposed legislative cap on government spending should explicitly exclude spending on the health, welfare and education of children. More investment in all our children now will save money in the future”.
 
"The government has said no new money will be spent on this action plan for vulnerable children, but we don't want to see a rob Peter to pay Paul approach whereby funding would be removed from existing child services to fund targeted services. Targetting children who are already vulnerable does not prevent other children from becoming vulnerable or being put at risk," he says.
 
NZEI supports a proposal in the Green Paper to establish a Minister for Children and while it favours mandatory reporting of child abuse, it would want to see some robust processes and professional development regarding information-sharing and reporting to help guide teachers.
 
"The health, welfare and education of all our children must be at the top of the government's priority list.  An action plan for vulnerable children needs to be a part of a wider commitment to all New Zealand children which is not dictated by fiscal constraint," says Mr Leckie.
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A new OECD report confirms that the concerns voiced about National Standards by teachers, schools and communities are very well placed, according to the education sector union NZEI Te Riu Roa.
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A new OECD report confirms that the concerns voiced about National Standards by teachers, schools and communities are very well placed, according to the education sector union NZEI Te Riu Roa.
 
The OECD has released its report on New Zealand as part of its Review of Evaluation and Assessment in Education across a number of OECD countries.
 
In looking at New Zealand's evaluation and assessment practices, the review says there are concerns around the design and implementation of National Standards, and raises questions about how National Standards information should be used.
 
It suggests National Standards are neither national nor standard due to the inconsistency in the way schools are interpreting them, that they are not well-aligned with current assessment tools, and that they risk marginalising other parts of the curriculum.
 
"The report reiterates many of the concerns that schools and teachers have been trying to flag since National Standards were first introduced," says NZEI President Ian Leckie.
 
One of the strongest points made in the report is around the potential for misuse of National Standards data.  It stresses the need to urgently clarify 'what kind of information standards-based reporting can and cannot provide, who should have access to the information and what uses of the information are considered appropriate'.
 
"That is clearly casting serious doubt on the accuracy of the Standards in measuring a school's effectiveness or reflecting a student's learning or progress.  It sounds the same warning which schools have been trying to give to the government - that any National Standards-based school league tables would be inherently unfair and caution is needed".
 
Ian Leckie says it would also be useful for the government to take on board a suggestion in the report that feedback channels should be established for teachers to report on how the National Standards work for them in practice and where they would suggest improvements.
 
"Sadly however, experience tells us that is feedback the government is determined not to hear."
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The education sector union NZEI Te Riu Roa says the latest OECD education report shows New Zealand has a top performing education system but warns government policies could be counter-productive to that success.
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The education sector union NZEI Te Riu Roa says the latest OECD education report shows New Zealand has a top performing education system but warns government policies could be counter-productive to that success.

The ‘Does Money Buy Strong Performance in PISA’ report looks at the relationship between expenditure in education and results in PISA, across dozens of countries.  It singles out New Zealand by saying it is a top performer despite spending less than average per student.

NZEI President Ian Leckie says it is good to see the government welcoming this report and finally acknowledging New Zealand as a top performing system.

“But New Zealand teachers are always ambitious to do better, and with more resources we could lead the world.  This report shouldn’t be seen an excuse to stop making further investment in education or to justify cuts or money-saving measures, he says.

“We should step up investment in the areas that we know return the best investment - in early childhood education, where research shows there is a $17 return on every $1 spent, supporting quality teaching and keeping class sizes, especially for new entrants, as low as we can so that teachers can provide the individual feedback to children that is important for learning.

This report should not be used as an opportunity to adopt Treasury’s misguided advice about increasing class size in order to free up money in education or for further experiments with charter schools and league tables”.

The report stresses that top-performing countries in PISA do not group students in terms of ability or separate out poor performers.

“Unfortunately that is the road National Standards and charter schools risk taking us down,” says Mr Leckie.

“They encourage the labeling of children and can lead to segregated learning environments both in the classroom and within the wider community.  None of that equates to improved student achievement or teacher quality”.

NZEI says it is also significant that the OECD report strongly links high performing countries with greater investment in teachers and giving them greater professional status.
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The education sector union NZEI Te Riu Roa says it's important to look beyond the headlines and see that the number of teachers who have been de-registered make up a very small percentage of the teaching workforce.
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The education sector union NZEI Te Riu Roa says it's important to look beyond the headlines and see that the number of teachers who have been de-registered make up a very small percentage of the teaching workforce.
 
Figures from the Teachers Council show that in the past two years 50 teachers had their teaching licenses revoked for serious misconduct. 
 
Out of a teaching workforce of around 100,000, that represents about 25 teachers a year, which translates to just .025 percent.
 
NZEI President Ian Leckie says that sort of perspective is important.
 
"We see the headlines screaming that hundreds of teachers are unfit to teach, but it’s important to drill down into the figures and see how few are actually being struck off and put it within the broader picture".
 
Mr Leckie believes the figures also show that the disciplinary procedures for teachers are robust and there is a high degree of accountability. 
 
"It’s in everyone's interest to vet out anyone who should not be teaching because we want the highest quality teachers in front of our children. The public should be reassured to know that the percentage of teachers who fall into this category is so very low and that those who do pose a risk are being dealt with," he says.
 
More than a third of complaints made against teachers are also dismissed.
 
Ian Leckie says that highlights that as a profession, teachers can often be targeted by vexatious or unwarranted grievances.
 
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The education sector union NZEI Te Riu Roa says education should not be used as a cash cow and the government would be mad to accept Treasury's latest advice.
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The education sector union NZEI Te Riu Roa says education should not be used as a cash cow and the government would be mad to accept Treasury's latest advice.

In its briefing to the incoming government Treasury has suggested radical reform to free up money, including increasing class sizes and student-teacher ratios and closing down schools.

"This type of reform would be a huge step backwards for our education system and I don't think schools, parents or communities would be willing to accept it.  It is ill-advised advice," says NZEI President Ian Leckie.

"Parents and schools fought long and hard to lower class sizes and student ratios in recent years particularly in the junior classes, and they would not want to see all that good work undone."

"It's disappointing to hear the Finance Minister say class size doesn't matter when parents and teachers, who see what happens in classrooms everyday, know that children get more out of teaching and learning when they are in smaller groups and can get more one-on-one attention".

"Having bigger classes would also do nothing to improve teacher quality," he says.

Closing down schools would hit communities hard, particularly if there was no educational benefit in doing so.

"Closing a school down impacts heavily on students and families and shouldn't affect a child's right to attend their local school.  Treasury's proposal is purely a money-making scheme for a wholesale sell-off of valuable school property and land which would come at the expense of local communities," Mr Leckie says.

"Surely education should not be a cash-cow for the government.  If Treasury really wanted to free up money in education and improve teacher quality it would reinstate the teacher professional development that the government has taken away and stop wasting tens of millions of dollars on National Standards".

NZEI says worryingly the Ministry of Education's briefing to the new Minister also signals school closures as well as the erosion of school board control over property.
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The education sector union NZEI Te Riu Roa says the government is stacking the charter school deck while keeping the public in the dark about how charter schools will work in New Zealand and how they will actually make a difference to student achievement.
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The education sector union NZEI Te Riu Roa says the government is stacking the charter school deck while keeping the public in the dark about how charter schools will work in New Zealand and how they will actually make a difference to student achievement.

The Associate Education Minister and sole ACT MP John Banks has said the first charter school will be up and running in south Auckland by the end of the first school term and he has appointed  former ACT Party President Catherine Isaacs to oversee the charter school implementation group.

"Once again we are seeing a total lack of transparency in this whole process and an agenda driven by politics and business rather than education and children," says NZEI President Ian Leckie.

"Firstly the government and ACT completely blindsided the public by announcing charter schools as part of their coalition deal, and now it is moving to unfairly stack the deck of the committee set up to establish them."

"The charter school agenda was clearly more advanced than the government cares to admit," he says.

Despite the speed at which the government is moving on charter schools, the public and communities where these schools will be established, have seen absolutely no details on how they will be set up and run.

"We are not being told why and how these schools will make a difference to underachieving kids.  Exactly what will a charter school do that is different and how does giving taxpayer money to business to run a school improve student achievement?  These are all questions the government is failing to give New Zealander the answers to," says Mr Leckie.

New Zealand students and schools do better than those in any of the countries where charter schools have been established.  The balance of overseas experience shows that charter schools do nothing to raise educational achievement and can take money away from existing schools and undermine communities.

NZEI believes the children who are missing out on educational success the most are facing the combined hurdles of poor health, bad housing, troubled families and poverty.  These aren't problems schools can fix on their own, and they certainly aren't problems that charter schools can fix.  

NZEI continues to call for any move to establish charter schools to go through a parliamentary select committee process so the public and educators can make submissions and see the issues fairly debated.
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With the new school year about to begin, the education sector union NZEI Te Riu Roa is repeating its call for the government to move to protect centralised 'National Standards' information from being drawn up into damaging league tables.
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With the new school year about to begin, the education sector union NZEI Te Riu Roa is repeating its call for the government to move to protect centralised 'National Standards' information from being drawn up into damaging league tables.

All schools must submit their student achievement data based on 'National Standards' to the Education Ministry by 31 May.

NZEI says schools are deeply concerned that the information will be made public and aggregated into crude league tables that will unfairly label students, schools and their communities.

"It’s a top-of-mind issue and worry for principals, teachers and school as we go into the 2012 school year," says NZEI President Ian Leckie.

"They know that 'National Standards' data is inconsistent and that each school is interpreting the Standards differently.  Aggregating that data into national or local league tables that give the impression of ranking school effectiveness would be unfair".

"The public should not be duped into thinking the effectiveness of schools can be judged on such inconsistent and flawed assessment which cannot properly reflect a student's learning or progress".

"Any National Standards-based league table will simply reflect school decile and serve to name and shame some of the very schools which are working the hardest to raise student achievement," Mr Leckie says.

NZEI believes that school and teacher accountability is essential and parents have a right to know that their children are engaged in high quality, effective teaching and learning programmes.  

However Mr Leckie says the danger is 'National Standards' will increasingly become a blunt driver of the government's accountability agenda.

"That puts our education system at the mercy of junk information.  It will also create unhealthy competition between schools, the likely massaging of student achievement information and a teaching to the test approach.  Is this really what we want for our world-leading education system and our children?"

NZEI says schools want an assurance that centralised 'National Standards' information will be protected, otherwise the government will find that come 31 May, schools will be reluctant to hand their student achievement data over.

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