Marilyn Gwilliam: Proposed standards miss the point

Do you believe in magic? I do, unashamedly. You can walk into many classrooms in the 400 schools in our association and witness sheer magic.

This magic is the creation of many skilful teachers and learning support staff, led by committed principals. There is a collective passion about learning. It is tangible and exciting.

In our schools we have a strong "can do" belief. We believe that all children can learn and we are not in the game of blaming a child's background if they are struggling to learn at school.

We acknowledge our absolute duty to teach them very well and to treat them with the respect they deserve as learners.

Having said that, many teachers, are overwhelmed at times by the increasing diversity in almost all Auckland classrooms.

Across the wider Auckland area, you will see children from many different countries whose home language is not English. Throughout the country, the Ministry of Education funds English language learning for around 33,000 students. Only 3000 are in the South Island, while around 23,000 are in primary and intermediate schools in our region.

Many of these students end up being completely bilingual, speaking English and their home language fluently. This is demanding yet rewarding work for teachers, but not without its challenges.

In these classrooms you will also see children who are struggling in their learning and receiving support from dedicated learning assistants. In the same classes there are many extremely capable students achieving way above national norms in all learning areas.

These students work at very high levels, accessing information electronically, interpreting and synthesising it and using it to personalise their own learning. Many of these students will be our future leaders.

Occasionally, there are students whose behaviour is dreadful and at times we struggle to access support for them.

There are also numbers of students with a range of neurological disabilities, varying degrees of autism and attention deficit disorders. Many teachers work magic with these children, also.

Given all these challenges, our schools in recent times have generally been in pretty good heart. Over the last two years we have been getting ready to implement in 2010 a new curriculum, the NZC, that we believe will better meet the needs of the students.

The priorities in the NZC will include a continued focus on reading, writing and mathematics, but there are also some exciting future focused components.

Inherent in the NZC is an explicit focus on teaching children the skills of learning how to learn as they navigate their way in an increasingly technological and connected world. Another exciting aspect is a focus on the development of their natural curiosity, thinking skills and creativity.

During 2009, however, on top of preparing to implement a new curriculum, we have been asked to integrate the Government's national standards in reading, writing and mathematics in years 1-8. These standards, or reference points, are in addition to literacy and numeracy progressions already used.

There was a "consultation" period of around five weeks to consider three draft standards. We have yet to see the rest of them, and we had very little time to consult communities, let alone with teachers who will be asked to use them in four months' time.

On the one hand we have been working towards a new competency-focused curriculum developed in partnership with our communities and tailored to the needs of students. Yet on the other we are being required to introduce Government-directed standards.

These standards are very likely to be far too simple for some students and far too difficult for others. The proposed standards presuppose that all students can achieve at the same level at the same time during each year of their schooling. Educators and parents know this is not the case.

There are important questions being raised by world-leading New Zealand researchers about the usefulness of prescribed standards in raising student achievement. Many are suggesting that the Government's priority needs to be on students who are underachieving. Indeed, it would be eminently sensible if we could invest in more learning support in the early years of schooling.

We know that the critical period in a child's development is between three and eight years of age. They do this in Finland and Singapore, countries leading the world in educational achievement.

It will be the magic of teachers, teaching our students skilfully and creatively with warmth, very high expectations and passion that will continue to make the real difference, not a set of standards.

* Marilyn Gwilliam is president of the Auckland Primary Principals Association.