Editorial: Govt should hold its nerve on standards

John Key must be deeply worried about the new policy. Photo / Getty Images

When John Key relieved Education Minister Anne Tolley of part of her portfolio last week so that she could concentrate on the introduction of national standards for schools, it was a sign he is deeply worried. He has reason to be. National campaigned on this policy at the last election and passed legislation to put it into effect this year. Now a chorus of teachers, principals and academics are damning it.

One of them is Auckland University professor John Hattie whom the Prime Minister says introduced the idea of a standards-based system to him. No sooner was it done than Dr Hattie changed his mind. He and fellow professors wrote to Mrs Tolley late last year calling the system "fundamentally flawed". Testing and reporting results at each year level would "distort and impoverish the culture of teaching and learning and assessment within schools," they said.

Meanwhile, principals were calling for it to be trialled in a few schools first and some backed a boycott threatened by the teachers' union. With pupils returning to school this week and the union planning a protest bus tour, Mr Key has had Dr Hattie in for a discussion. It would have been interesting to hear it.

The Prime Minister has shown himself to be open to reason; he can be persuaded to change a policy if it is not sound. But he should not abandon this one just because it may be different from the style of testing and reporting to parents that schools prefer, or that it comes on top of other curriculum alterations, or that it might permit the publication of, heaven forbid, "league tables".

Nothing illustrates the gulf between the public and the profession as much as league tables. The profession objects to the ranking of schools by aggregate test results because these take no account of the pupils' socio-economic advantages. Parents do not mind advantages, they are probably looking for them. They are not primarily interested in fairness to schools. They want to know where their child has the best chance of being among well-motivated, successful peers and do not mind if those qualities come from the pupils' homes.

Mrs Tolley came to the education portfolio with no experience in the field. This might not impress the profession but it can enhance her value to the public. She speaks the language of parents. She will be asking simple questions of the sector that cut through the jargon and imprecision of the language it uses to make its work sound more impressive. Many of its favourite phrases become crass in translation.

That is particularly true of written reports to parents. National has promised to make those more specific and useful. The Government should not compromise that policy for the sake of pacifying a sector of state servants who can make its life difficult. Mr Key and his minister are not confrontational politicians. They are likely to accommodate teachers' preferences where possible.

But a trial is not needed. Those typically take years to bear fruit. Voters have endorsed the idea of rigorous national standards at all levels and clear reporting to parents. Is that really so hard? Primary schools are testing pupils for their own purpose all the time. Now they will have to share the results with parents.

Dr Hattie and his colleagues are concerned people might "wrongly assume children were failing if they were not meeting standards for their age." Yes, lay people would call that failure. The academics go on to say this would "damage children's self-esteem and turn them off learning". Or, it could see greater efforts made at home and at school to get them up to the standard.

The battle with educational failure has just begun. The Government must not give it up now.