Principals and BOT Response

As a school principal I have no issue with national standards. We receive state money to provide a quality education for any student who attends our school. However Anne Tolley's recent comments about reporting this information to the MOE and the inevitable creation of league tables must be resisted. The reasons for this resistance are mentioned elsewhere on this blog.
The central issue is what do we do. we are not powerless. Boards and Principals have a huge degree of power via the non-violent act of boycotting. It is an industrial tool that we in education rarely use. This is an issue that we need to state very clearly our intention to not participate in any form of reporting to central government. We'll report to the local community but we will not report to the MOE.
Failure to act will see the further break up of a state education where we want all schools to be good. The state review agency ERO can deal with the few schools where there are real problems. Let the rest of us get on with teaching and learning.

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Permalink Reply by Stephanie Mills on July 5, 2009 at 12:20am

I'd be interested to hear more about where BOTs are at with the national standards issue. Feedback from at least one consultation meeting was that the handful of BOT folk there were very keen and happy to see league tables, but NZPF's recent survey suggests that this may not be typical. Any response? I think we're in danger of getting parents typecast as "loving standards" and principals typecast as "stopping parents having the information they have a right to" when obviously the issues are more complex than this.

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Permalink Reply by Philip Harding on July 5, 2009 at 7:20pm

It is now vital that principals initiate a discussion with their Board and their community.

The risk is real that principals could become isolated and at risk if they don't take their communities with them on this. I asked my Board to clarify their position following my series of rants using newsletters and letters to the paper. They have now givn me formal support and are right up to speed.

NZSTA is sitting to one side, watching. Their support is not guaranteed. We must take our point of view to the parents. I think Anne Tolley is the only one who won't listen carefully to our concerns.

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Permalink Reply by Chris Morris on October 28, 2009 at 3:06pm

I agree with Stephanie that its important that we avoid being typecast in the debate about standards. The issues are both simple and complex (and aren't paradoxes wonderful). The Government, as the major investor in education has the right to ascertain that the money is well used to provide a well-educated society. Parents, as taxpayers, need to have some assurrance that their child is receiving a quality education. As educationalists we need to use National Standards as an opportunity to demonstrate our professionalism. Going on about them just places us back in the tired old ideological game about who's really in charge of schools. If we want to make our point that we are already meeting the standards, lets overwhelm the MOE with high quality data and at the same time tell the public through the Press.

I also think we need to think carefully about how we work with Anne Tolley. Politically she owns us nothing - all we are doing is reinforcing a stereotype that teachers inhabit the centre-left of the political spectrum. We need to present our views using the language of the centre-right so that we can engage and influence the debate. I think the issue isn't standards, the issue is the fear of information being manipulated. And if that's the fear, let's focus on that.

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Permalink Reply by Nichola King on February 16, 2011 at 10:56am

I am on the BOT at Dalefield School, Kevin Jephson is the principal. The Board of Trustees has fully backed his stand against National Standards. We have just issued a press release on the school website. We surveyed our parents last term and the school community stands fully behind both Kevin and the Board.

You can see our schools press release at our website.

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Permalink Reply by John Callahan on February 17, 2011 at 11:44am

With National Standards people with English as a First Language will always do better. There have been no new reading English and reading programme placed in schools. I wouldnt complain too much about National Standards. I was born in the 1950's and could live with it. However it is reinforcing failure-not only for children, teachers and schools but for physical and ethnic communities.Instead of complaining let's build a new New Zealand. www.readspeak.co.nz