Martin Thrupp's Page

Regarding Philip Harding's very good question about how to get traction with the media, some of what is said can be challenged on factual basis - for instance a few of us were able to publish letters in response to a DomPost editorial which was trying to argue that teaching has more effect on student achievement than the effects of family background, research shows otherwise and its an easy matter to refute.



Also letters or articles which more generally rehearse the arguments against… Continue

For NZEI members info, copy of message of support sent to NZPF president Ernie Buutveld



Dear Ernie



I hope primary principals will stick to their stance in resisting the league table potential of the national standards. I do think if there is one policy worth principals resisting then this would be the one. I see the Herald editorial today came out against the NZPF stance but then parts of that editorial were disgusting i.e. where it said:



"League tables are a… Continue

Now that the consultation materials are out, it seems those in schools often feel they could work with the standards as a form of assessment but are more concerned about what use national standards data will be put to beyond the school ie their 'high stakes' elements. For instance Perry Rush's article in the Herald this morning 'Punishing schools won't make them pull up their socks' says "What is the likely change in teaching that will come about as a consequence of this policy? As the draft… Continue

The opinion piece below was prepared back in May with input from others on the QPEC executive and has been published in various places in the last couple of weeks. I guess I have been trying to reach out to the public and the profession on this issue more than I normally would because I see the government removing what is undoubtedly one of the greatest strengths of NZ primary education, that we haven't in recent years gone down the line of national testing (or variants on the same theme such… Continue