KEY POINTS:
National's plan to make schools assess children's abilities in reading, writing and mathematics and report to parents has been slammed by principals as a "vote grabbing exercise" which would pit school against school.
Speaking to a principals, lecturers, teachers and teaching students at Auckland University's education department, Mr Key said schools would also have to report to parents how their children fared among peers.
The Principals' Federation has criticised the policy as a "vote grabbing exercise" and a "knee jerk reaction to the flawed ERO report released last week".
President Judy Hanna said the Education Review Office findings clashed with a similar report by the Council of Educational Research which found most schools did tell parents the results of assessment.
"We do not support comparisons of schools on a narrow band of information, that only looks at one part of a student's educational needs. That is why we are opposed to this cynical attempt to place election votes ahead of student wellbeing and learning."
Prime Minister Helen Clark said she had not read the speech, but students were already thoroughly tested in school and parents had access to a lot of information.
Minister of Education Steve Maharey said the policy lacked substance and harked back to the old days of "feeding students through a production line".
"Our 21st-century education system caters to and responds to the needs of individual students. There is no centrally imposed minimum expected standard because we want all students to aim for the highest level of achievement."
However, Pakuranga College principal Heather McRae, who was at Mr Key's speech, said setting national guidelines made good sense. Secondary schools often inherited students in the third form who had difficulties with reading, writing and numeracy and assessing them early would make it easier for schools to help them.
"One school of thought is that it's okay for children to be at different stages of progress, but in a lot of cases it is not. There would be far more flags in the sand that would signal those students who were underachieving and it is important to do that."
Mr Key said identifying struggling students early would help address the "tail of underachievement". The top students in New Zealand were among the best in the world, but there was also a significant number who left school without any qualifications.
If their learning struggles could be picked up and acted on by schools and parents early, it would help them at later stages of their education. It was not "School Certificate for 6-year-olds".
He welcomed advice on how to set the appropriate standards children should reach, and which assessments were best to test it.
The policy could be implemented without extra resources and would probably include assessments which were already widely used in schools but not effectively used by many.
An ERO report on schools' use of assessment revealed 49 per cent of schools did not use the results of assessment to raise performance or inform parents.
Mr Key said further education policies, including changes the party wanted for the NCEA system, would be announced soon.
NZEI, the union for primary school teachers and principals warned it should not lead to schools competing head to head or "league tables" being drawn up to rank schools.
