Speech by Andrew Lambie, Chairperson, Southbridge School Board of Trustees, to CPPA meeting 10/8/2010

National Standards Speech to Canterbury BOT Members

10/8/2010

Andrew Lambie, Chairperson, Southbridge School Board of Trustees

I have been a member of the Southbridge School Board of Trustees for 10 years and the chairman since May this year.

Last December the Southbridge Board resolved “not to implement the National Standards at this time.”

Whilst I am far from keen on public speaking I feel strongly enough about the national standards issue that I am in fact pleased to be able to share with fellow trustees some of our experiences, processes and thinking behind the position we have taken and to outline our progress to date.

Early in 2009 there was a little bit of discussion here and there about this national standards legislation that had just been passed. For my part I just put it down to just another something that needed to be complied with and gave it little thought.

Then, last November, our then chairman Alison Lumsden attended the NZEI forum on national standards and reported back to the board on the concerns raised by some of the speakers. Alison is a very honest and conscientious person and to hear her speak the way she did on the subject made us all take notice. At the same time the open letter to the Minister of Education from Professors Thrupp, Hattie, Crooks and Flockton had been published which added considerable weight to the realisation that this is a major issue which requires us all to become informed about as it will have a dramatic effect on education in New Zealand.

Not only should the board become better informed but also the parent community and so we agreed that our principal Peter Verstappen should write a series of articles in the schools weekly news letter to inform and encourage debate on the issue.

We invited parents to meet with us to discuss any concerns they might have and one parent went to the extent of asking that information on her children be excluded from any data that may have to be forwarded to the ministry.

These events brought us to our December meeting where after a lengthy debate we passed the resolution not to implement the national standards at this time and that our focus should be on the implementing of the New Zealand Curriculum.

This decision was announced to the community the next evening at the school prize giving during the chairman’s address and was met with a spontaneous burst of applause. This response confirmed to us that we had made the right decision!

As a board we were happy to fly under the radar with our position however a single sentence at the bottom of an article by a Dominion Post journalist brought a bit of attention, enough in fact to finally get a response to an invitation from us to our local MP to discuss our concerns. We met with Mrs. Adams in March, outlined our concerns about the policy and asked that she convey them to the minister. She assured us she would but left us in no doubt that they would have no influence with the roll out of the national standards policy.

Despite this it was a good meeting and, if nothing else, was a good chance to re-visit and confirm our thinking on the subject.

The next part of the process was a request from Mr. Ray Webb the area manager from the Ministry of Education for a meeting. This was held in early April where Peter, Alison and I were quizzed about how we assess and report student achievement, the quality of the data to the board and how we use the data. We explained our desire to prioritise the N Z Curriculum and our doubts about the national standards.

Apart from Mr. Webb sending us a copy of his notes of the meeting we have heard nothing further from the ministry.

This brought us to the BOT elections.

Three members including the chairman were not seeking re-election so, with the 2 incumbents being re-elected, three new parent reps and a new staff rep we now have quite a new board.

Given the newness of the board and the importance of the national standards issue it was decided to re-visit our position. After some debate the following was resolved:

· That we continue our primary focus on the NZ Curriculum

· That we continue with the previous boards stance of not implementing the national standards in their current form.

· However, we will engage with the National Standards to the point of informing staff about them and reviewing our current school wide assessment and reporting practices.

· We will revisit the decision in October 2010

This is where we stand now and is our story to date.

The tricky bit will be when we revisit the decision in October. If we choose to maintain our position then we will be in breach of NAG 2(a) in general but specifically sub clause c(i) which refers to reporting to government student achievement and I am sure there will be some consequences to that action.

The Southbridge School Board of Trustees is 100% confident that our school is using proven assessment tools to identify children who are failing and that appropriate measures are being implemented to help these children succeed. We are also satisfied that student achievement is being reported to parents we have feedback from them to support this.

Because of this we are happy with our decision not to implement the national standards.

In the mean time we will keep ourselves informed on the issue and hope that the ever increasing opposition to the standards starts to get through to the minister and that she at least consents to a (small) trial.

I have referred to our commitment to implementing the New Zealand Curriculum and want to give you an idea of what it means to our school community and why we put it ahead of the national standards.

The development of the NZ Curriculum has for us been a very thorough process which started three years ago. We call it 20/20 Vision. The name comes from the idea that children starting school in 2007 would be finishing their secondary schooling in the year 2020; the substance comes from the question how do we best prepare these children for life beyond school.

The Board of Trustees together with the wider parent community has been heavily involved with the staff in the development of a curriculum for our school which includes the key areas of reading writing and maths together with other elements that are important to our local community.

To date the process has included three whole day seminars and several parent focus group sessions where we brain storm and refine ideas for what we want for our children and how it will be delivered to them.

Whilst what we have developed so far is now becoming successfully imbedded in our school culture, it is an on going process and one that continues to be embraced by the whole community.

The development of the NZ Curriculum has been a partnership between the teaching profession, the parent community and the Ministry of Education. Resources’ have been made available for the likes of good quality professional development to ensure the project is a success. The key thing is all parties are behind the project and keen to make it work. That keenness comes from the recognition that it is a worthwhile and valuable project.

That is the difference between it and national standards. The national standards are not supported by the teaching professionals and, I suspect, a number of ministry employees for the simple reason they see the concept as having serious flaws. There is plenty of international evidence to support their views.

It is very difficult to support something you don’t see any value in.

National Standards are, in my opinion, an attempt at reinventing the wheel. That they have come as far as they have despite opposition from leading education academics’ and the teaching profession is for me very disappointing. Resources’ that are being put into this flawed policy would be far better spent on helping students our proven assessment systems have already identified.

Why then did the National Party adopt this policy?

My theory is that it was pure politicking.

During any election campaign the headings we all get sick of hearing are health, education, the economy, social welfare. Every time a campaigning politician speaks, these words come out. Of course they do, they are all areas that are important to people.

What National needed was a point of difference in education. They couldn’t compete with an initiative like the N Z Curriculum so they had to pull out the national standards policy despite its proven flaws. They have picked up on a statistic that 20% - forgive me - 1 in 5 children are failing, and we are going to do something about it.

What they didn’t acknowledge was that things are already being done to lift student achievement and that bringing in a policy for the sake of political difference diverts resources away from where they are really needed.

Politicking using children as pawns is in my opinion morally dodgy and does this government no credit whatsoever.

So, what else can we all do next?

One of the few things that could change the government’s mind on this issue is the sense that there is opposition from enough of the voting public to make them realise that it could influence the way they vote.

I therefore urge you all to get your communities talking about the issue, give them information so they can develop informed opinions and get them writing to the minister expressing their views.

If lots of us do it there maybe some hope of change!